A WereHunter's story : Lysander's story
by DazedInReality
Summary: Lysander is a bitter hater of Arcadians, after the butchering of his entire family he will not rest until every last one dies by his hand. This has been his life until Nyssa appears, will his bitter hatred kill her love for him? Will it kill her? R R plz!
1. Chapter 1

**(Lysander's first appearance like Paris was in 'Unleash the Night'. I know I really should finish Paris's story but this one just keeps bugging at me real bad. So I thought I better write it in case I forget some of the ideas. R and R my people. Thnx!)**

_1817 - the last time Lysander fought the Arcadians_

He prowled through the dense wilds of the Orient jungles, it was a thick mix of dark and light colours, of shadows and sun, of smells and tastes sharp and overwhelming to the acute senses of the tiger. Bright as he was he blended with his surroundings, slipping easily from one space to another and all the time he watched, he stared, he waited. He was predator and the world was his prey. Looking through the both knarred and smooth limbs of low hanging branches Lysander waited several minutes, a fundamental rule of a tigers life was patience. Without it death should come swiftly to those trying to survive in the jungle. A dragon may have fire and flight, a bear its size and strength, the wolves its agility, the hawks their keen eyesight, the jackals their cunning minds, but none could come close to the patience of a tiger. It required physical and mental discipline, waiting out your prey, waiting without becoming panicked or nervous for the very moment when all can be yours.

Nothing approached the secluded pond that were surrounded by sweet almost sickly smelling flowers, Lysander loped to the pond and instead of diving as usual, for he loved the water, he let it engulf him slowly, he growled when the fresh water soaked his torn shoulder. The water surrounding him turned a little pink but was mostly hidden under the reflecting of so much green around him and in the water itself.

A scent reached him, made him still. Made him lower. Made him wait. Backing up so only his eyes, ears and nose showed above the lazily moving surface, from between two huge pink water lilies he became so unmoving the water once again turned to glass.

He growled. _Arcadian!_

Out of the dark jade of the jungle a human raced into the sunlight, she was confused and very frightened, wringing her small hands and clutching at a dress that was more like a brown grey sack with a ragged slashed hem. Her long black hair was mussed and dirty like her face, her hands and feet looked cut and sore, her bottom lip trembled as her wide brown eyes scanned for something. Lysander knew the she was a very young human, still a child, no more then ten years, something behind her, perhaps the 'rabit!' of a frog made her jump violently and she scrabbled for the rocks. The pond lay in a valley of sorts and she nigh on threw herself over the edge to get away from the noise, she crawled the ponds edge and pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around her knees. Rocking backwards and forwards she wept as only a child can weep, with harsh, racking sobs that shortens the breath and leaves you unable to speak.

Lysander eased from the pond and stalked her stealthily, he was standing beside her little, weak body and she didn't even know it, suddenly the girls tears quietened and she put her head down and covered it with her arms, and when she spoke it was in a little stuffy voice a curious side-effect of crying in humans, her voice strained to be heard.

"Just do it, I can't run anymore!"

Lysander cocked his furry head then flashed into his human self, dressed in only in white linen pants he crossed his legs and sat beside her.

"Why were you running?" he asked his voice naturally gravely as though he had been drinking whiskey for hours straight.

"I was trying to find the village, then I might be able to find someone to help me." her voice became a whisper, "the Katagaria killed my parents."

"Arcadians?"

"uh hmm."

"They probably deserved it," Lysander said without thought. He looked at the child expecting her to cry, she didn't. She didn't even look angry, she looked drained, all the fight had been taken out of her.

"No, I don't think they did. My mitera and my baap were very kind to me."

"You're their daughter did you expect them to be anything else."

She shrugged. "I didn't do anything, neither did Jin." She wiped away a silent tear and Lysander felt his heart twinge a bit.

"How old are you and Jin?"

"I'm ten and Jin is seven."

"Where is Jin?"

She gave him a look that even in her depressed and hurt state looked sarcastic and condescending, with horror Lysander realised Jin, the seven year old Arcadian boy was dead. It shouldn't bother him, not when members of his own family that were just as young had been slaughtered, but it might have been the blood he noticed drying into her dress that made him feel slightly sick.

"Why do you call your mother mitera and your father baap?"

"My father is an Indian and my mother is Greek." She answered shortly, he understood anyway. Baap was Hindi for papa. He looked at her then, he could see then she would have to be mixed. Her skin was far too light to pass for an Indian, in fact she looked Spanish or perhaps that dark gypsy look. Only her coal black hair and brown eyes could relate her to her father's heritage. Lysander sighed.

"Are you looking for help from humans?"

She nodded, her eyes were drooping and he shook her by the shoulder, she jerked awake.

"If I were you, little tiger, I'd be cautious. You look white so the natives may not help you and the whites will question what you are so tell them your Mediterranean and they might help you. Sleep only as much as you have to to keep you going and stay away from the plants that the deer leave alone. Water hides your scent so try to sleep near it but always hide yourself effectively, use the colours of the forest to camouflage yourself. And above all be patient. Do not walk through the night to get at the village by sunrise, it will be your death. Do not run for the meat before the others get it until you know the animal you fight is one you can win. Understand me?"

She nodded and stumbled up.

"I should go now?"

"What would waiting around achieve?"

The little girl looked down at where she had been sitting, "a sore bottom?"

Lysander smiled and shook his head before he to got to his feet. A part of him wanted to help her out and flash her to the village, but he had his own things to do. Besides it was better to learn it young that you have to survive the hard way then later, this way if she survives she'll only have herself to thank for it. Besides he had no business helping out little mongrel Arcadians, she would grow up one day to be everything he despised, everything he vowed to kill. She _was _everything he despised and the only thing stopping him from harming her was that he refused to kill a child, he would not become what he hunted. A human.

"Goodbye, tiger man," she said.

"Goodbye, err …"

She laughed, "Nyssa." She pronounced it Nee-Sa.

"Goodbye Nyssa."

Lysander watched her small body walk as fast as her short legs could carry her out of sight, she would probably die, he knew that, but he would not help her. She was Arcadian, she was everything he was against, he wrote his code in her peoples blood, one little girl could not change that.


	2. Chapter 2

Nyssa Castellanos did not think of herself as a fool but on occasion she did some really foolish things, like taking a trip to New Orleans. At 191 she should have learnt that taking trips to the supernatural melting pot of the world was not something that should be done - at least not without being wired up to the eyeballs and having a Glock strapped to her waist. No wait, guns were for her human problems, a phaser was for weres. And for pissed off Gods … Prayers?

Nyssa was usually found on the small island called Little Dina somewhere in the Indian ocean, the joke in that area is 'what happened to Big Dina?' …. 'someone ate it!'. Its strange how it's a joke that has never been funny, not to Nyssa at least.

Since no one but Were-hunters and the rest of the midnight beasties that should only be real in your nightmares know about it when a human asks where she's from (which they do a lot), Nyssa just goes for the simple solution and says Goa. Not as big and well known as most other parts of India not so obscure that people question you further. Solution formed. Ri-ght.

Nyssa stopped outside Sanctuary, the collection of bikes and bikers outside the bar would make a human woman nervous, but since going through puberty and getting to grips with her powers humans, at least, were one thing she could tick off of her 'scares me' list.

The heat in New Orleans was nothing to where she was from but there was no reason to be uncomfortable so she donned white cotton shorts that came to mid-thigh and showed the outline of her white lace panties through them, hey it was an unfortunate fact of life that sometimes its unavoidable showing them as a woman! A pretty turquoise boob tube and white flats. The white, she knew, set off her darkened skin to perfection, if she lived in somewhere dismal with no sun like Scotland perhaps, her tinted skin would be unnoticeable. However being kissed twenty four seven by Apollo left her looking pretty much baked, now she was a white girl with a killer tan to some, other times she was Spanish, others Mexican. No one ever said Greek or Indian. Once again, how strange.

Nyssa walked into the bar, the door was heavy and the bouncer at the door, with long curly blond hair held it open for her, which was nice if it wasn't for that streak of feminist pride in her. In she went and made sure not to make eye contact with anyone until she was sat at the bar, she would kill Rumba for this!

Rumba owned a Limani on Little Dina called the Iri'ni, that meant peace in Greek, (not that Nyssa found it very peaceful) it was the northern Hemispheres answer to the Sanctuary, everyone in the vicinity congregated there. While the Sanctuary was full of the local bikers and natives, Iri'ni was full of beach bums and hippies and natives - minus the tourists and it was Sanctuary's counterpart. It was even owned by a family of Katagaria Tsakali, that's jackals in everyday English.

Rumba the flea-ridden half mutt had sent her half way round the world to send a message to Aubert Peltier, and it was not an important one, but the Katagaria running Iri'ni had never warmed to her and she earned her money by being their messenger girl so here she was. In fact Nyssa had a feeling Rumba had created the message just to get her out of sight, she sighed and before she could stop it the voice in her head asked once again - _What would it take just to be loved?_

Nyssa almost growled at herself and turned her thoughts to finding the Papa bear, she was a tiger and solitary she was by nature, she didn't like big crowds. But she was patient as she scanned the bar for someone who seemed likely to know said bear, the bar staff were all busy, go figure? But patience was the virtue, so taught her the hero who saved her back when she was ten, the Katagaria tiger she had never ever forgotten. He had haunted her dreams for years on end, she always dreamed of meeting him again.

"Hello chickie," Nyssa looked up at a friendly voice, she almost frowned in confusion, surely they could smell her Arcadian blood. Nyssa looked up and a clean shaven, black haired bear stood in front of her. "What can I getcha?"

Nyssa nearly grinned at him, aha this was the sentinel they kept here then?

"I need to find Aubert Peltier," she said it quickly, clearly and bluntly, the guys eyes flickered for a moment and his smile faltered, it did not return. Way to go Nissy, make friends wherever you go!

Well subtly was never her forte, Nyssa thought and continued to stare politely at the bear, who she reminded herself could probably break her in two.

"Wait here," he muttered then stalked off out back, a few minutes later a large blond bear, that shared similar features to the bouncer at the door, only he was older and a hell of a lot bigger, came striding towards her. There was no animosity that Nyssa could detect which eased her slightly, she stood up, she was going to offer her hand but learnt the hard way that Katagaria don't like Arcadians touching them. You would think she would have learnt that at ten, but such as the world is and all that crap …

"I heard a young tigress was looking for me? You?" he's voice was deep and laced with a thick French accent, his voice was innately kind.

"I have a message for you, Mister Peltier," Nyssa said aware for once how strong her own accent was, an exotic mixture between Greek and Indian that got mixed up along the way and made her sound like she had been brought up in the West Indies. "From Rumba Costa?"

Peltier frowned, "Rumba? I spoke to him a little while ago. Why didn't he just phone?"

"Because he's a pain in my ass. Always pissing and moaning about something."

"Wouldn't you with a name like his?"

Nyssa grinned widely at Papa bear Peltier and liked him immediately after that comment, it had been Nyssa's life's work since she was thirteen and discovered her knack for sarcasm to torment Rumba about his mother's choice in names.

"Yeah, I know, he has a name like a bad cocktail drink, but he told me to give you this message."

Nyssa pulled the small, thin envelope from her pocket and handed it to Peltier, he opened the envelope smoothly, Nyssa perched herself on her stool again. She waited for him to finish reading but before he did the music in the bar died and there was a distinct and conspicuous hush that fell over most of the weres, they looked to the bar doors.

****

It's a weird mystery of the world that you forget how much you dislike something and it takes you confronting your pet hate to make you realise, oh yeah, that's why I detest it. Lysander Stephanos wasn't sure why he'd dropped into Sanctuary, he actually wasn't sure why he was in New Orleans - oh, yeah he did, Savitar the all-knowing, all-seeing ass wipe had sent him here. Well, not exactly sent him here, but as he was getting ready to flash himself back to the wild forests of Asia after yet another boring and senseless Omegrion meeting, Savitar had given him that look. Those black glittering eyes had pierced him while he asked in the most grave manner, had he visited Sanctuary lately?

It was like a compulsion had been planted in his brain and so here he was, Lysander scanned his surroundings, he watched scantily clad women eye his body ravenously, he watched the men foolishly turn dismissing backs or threatening fronts to him. He watched the Weres exchange knowing looks, looks that said they silently communicated to keep a close watch on him. Ever since the young leopard tiger mix Wren had been brought to trial by the bears of New Orleans, a seed of dislike had sprung into his mind for them, animals should not turn on their own. He moved smoothly to a booth at the back of the dance floor where it was darker and cooler, the smell of sweat and lust was not so bad.

A human waitress edged closer to his table, she looked nervous about asking him for his order, he turned the full force of his stare on her and she began to shake with fear. One of the bears came over to her.

"Why don't you go take care of the food orders, I got you covered," he said, the waitress gave him a grateful look and dashed away to the kitchen.

"What can I get you, tiger?" the bear asked, Lysander narrowed his eyes, this must be one of Nicolette Peltier's boys, he only knew her because she was the Katagaria Bear rep. on the council.

"Anything without the human hair," the bear said nothing and nodded, moments later he supplied Lysander with a bottle of home-brewed Grey Goose and a glass, Lysander raised and eyebrow at the bottle and the bear shrugged.

"You look like you need it."

"Do they pay you to think about what I fucking need, bear?" Lysander snapped, his stormy grey eyes swirling dangerously, like the sky over the ocean before a storm as he flicked a fifty dollar bill over the table. The bear just chuckled sinisterly and picking the cash up walked away, no doubt he'd be back to rumble, but that was he's funeral. Lysander couldn't afford to be friendly with those of his own kind, Katagaria and Arcadians have both over the centuries put prices on his head to stop him raising hell everywhere he went, in search of the last one …

Lysander swallowed the drink with a growl as it burnt his throat, he poured another glass uncaring when he slopped it on the table, with the glass almost to his lips he paused. The hair on the back of his neck was tingling, under his black wavy hair his eyes slashed to his right where a petite and pretty girl was standing.

Her black hair was pulled into a long sleek pony tail that fell over her shoulder as she craned her neck around the booth to get a closer look at him, when he met her brown eyes they widened and sparkled, her mouth opened in a silent laugh of delight and her cinnamon skin was made all the more darker by the pearly whiteness of her straight teeth. Lysander curled his lip, another Arcadian, they were everywhere! The woman stepped forward eagerly her ample breasts seemed to be bouncing in her top as she practically hopped to his side.

"Hello," she said, her voice like her skin was smooth, like butter and golden honey it glided over him and raised goose bumps on him, the glass was still paused before his lips.

"What do you want?"

"Do you not remember me?"

Lysander frowned, his eyebrows melding together. How the fuck should he know her? He didn't particularly etch the faces of his past into his memory but he was likely to remember a face like hers. That accent wasn't familiar, a lilting accent that seemed rooted in the Caribbean patios didn't fit her western looking face. His frowned deepened.

"Did I fuck you?" He asked bluntly, before he remembered he didn't do Arcadians, no matter how sexy, and this girl was hot! But in the event that he had he might consider it again, he thought staring at the slender line of her throat. Lysander knew he was a good lover; sometimes he thought it was animal instinct that made him so good, he wasn't boasting he just knew what he knew. The girl pulled a revolted face - guess not.

"Ew! No, you most certainly did not!" she said wrinkling her nose prettily.

"Ah, right, so this narrows it down," Lysander turned back to his drink, "I killed your family and your still sore about it, right? Come to seek revenge?" He laughed bitterly, "go home, little girl."

"What the hell are you talking about?" the girl snapped, he quirked a surprised eyebrow and put his glass down, turning in his seat so he fully faced her, he gave her a lets get this over with now look.

"You really don't remember me?" she seemed incredulous.

"Are you that special that I should?" She seemed taken off guard by that and gave a one shoulder jerk that passed as a shrug and spoke again.

"You saved me, remember? I'm Nyssa, I met you in the forest when I was ten?"

Lysander had never forgotten Nyssa, he always wondered why. Unaccustomed to guilt Lysander would not let himself believe that he regretted not saving her, knowing she would die in the jungle. Was this woman before him the little girl that sometimes came to him in his dreams, asking him why he left her and where her family was. For a while during the early 20th century Lysander had a Katagaria lover whom he pet named Nyssa, he always assumed it was because he liked the name. The little girl he abandoned had certainly grown into a beautiful young woman and apparently was under the misapprehension that he was some sort of hero.

"You lived then," he muttered, his voice for once not filled with growling hostility but with slight surprise.

"Yes thanks to you -"

"I didn't save you."

"Yes, you did. Had you not told me how to survive I would never have made it out!"

Her praise and gratefulness made him uncomfortable, he could see the weres in the bar watching him curiously. He, a hater of all things Arcadian was sitting with an Arcadian female who was looking at him as if he had just offered her the key to heaven. A flush of shame flooded his face and he turned a furious stare on her.

"Fuck off! Now!"

The girls smile died abruptly like the flame of a candle being snuffed out and Lysander felt the need to apologise. Obviously he didn't, but the need was there all the same, he settled for something in between.

"I didn't save -"

"Well, thank you for then," she said coolly and stood up, her knee deliberately unsteadied the table and made his glass spill in his lap. He wiped the cold liquid of his crouch with a curse and heard her muttering as she walked away. "That's for now, asshole!"

"Bitch!" he snarled, he was not amused. He's lips twitched, he was absolutely not amused. Didn't she know he could rip her throat out and toss it in the corner without a second thought? Some hero he turned out to be ….

His eyes stalked her in the darkness as she returned to talk to Nicolette's mate, the big bear was frowning and shaking his head then he saw Nyssa curse. Again he raised his eyebrows with surprise, he didn't need to be a lip reader to know what she said, she put her hands on her hips and shaking her head walked to the door and out of the bar. Lysander watched her go and in all his years nothing ever tested his will power as much that, watching her plump behind swish out the door and having to wait for a minute or so before casually getting up and loping to the door. When what he wanted to do was charge through the sea of people to get to her.

****

Dead jackal for breakfast! She was going to kill Rumba Costa, it was unfortunate (for him maybe, the rest of the world she wasn't so sure) and it was unavoidable but he fucking asked for it this time.

_What about all the other times?_ Her mind asked slyly.

_Shut up, me!_

But what about all the other times though? How many times had Rumba done things like this, sent her off on wild goose chases just to get her away from the island. Why? Because she disgusted him? He hated her? Because she was Arcadian? An untidy house guest?

It was probably rather hilarious to some people that he kept doing it to her, rather like a silly prank between friends, hell no! Nyssa knew there was an underlying maliciousness in his 'little pranks' and it hurt enough to bring tears to her eyes, she swiped them before they could fall. When she had first turned up on the island and asked him for sanctuary in his Limani, she knew by the curl of his lip and the gleam in his eye, he would have liked nothing more then to skin her. But rules were rules she had to be allowed to stay unless she did something that violated those rules, but Rumba wasn't as honest as he liked to make out. In fact for a Katagaria he was a class A crook and Nyssa had stumbled on to some of his more lucrative dealings that he had kept quiet from his brother, his brother Liko Costa would kill him for his double-crossing.

So they struck up a contract. She was to be his 'little helper' - his messenger, his sidekick and that gave her an immunity from ever being kicked out, this pissed Rumba off to no end but what could he do, Nyssa had him by the balls and he knew it. So instead he made her life as miserable as possible, he made her know every minute of the day that she was alone and without anyone to care for her. Nyssa had given herself a little illusion that after a couple of years he would come to care for her as a daughter or something - ain't gonna happen.

Nyssa stopped abruptly and backed up to the wall of a closed store, something was after her, she crouched low, waiting for the moment to attack, then -

"Arrgh!" She shouted, she had pounced only to see her ex-hero appearing under the street light, she barely had time to catch herself before she mangled him with her claws and stood breathing heavily and staring at him. He, however, looked strangely unperturbed by this.

"I thought you said I taught you how to survive?" he asked nastily, Nyssa narrowed her eyes and turned her back on him, she had barely started off down the street when she was whipped around quickly by her arm, his grip was bruising as he shook her. His handsome face contorted with a kind of fury that made her quake.

"Never turn your back on your opponent!" he snarled and shook her again, too shocked to do anything, Nyssa flopped about like a rag doll. "Do you hear me? You might not strike at the back but I assure you, little Nyssa, not everyone is so noble!"

Nyssa pulled her arm from him. "I didn't expect it to be you, did I?" she growled and rubbed her reddened flesh.

"That's exactly why you should attack first and ask questions later!"

Nyssa couldn't help but be confused, "and why would the tiger that saved me so many years ago, attack and kill me today?"

"Gods, woman!" he spat out, angrily punching the wall, his fist came away bloody but he did not so much as glance down. "You are so dense its unbelievable that you actually came out of that forest alive."

"It was a jungle actually," she muttered under her breath and felt immediately childish for it, Nyssa straightened her shoulders. "If I'm so stupid why are you following me?"

"Well, it could be to kill you but I don't know if even my conscience could take killing something so dim-witted."

Nyssa gaped, dim-witted, her?! "That's rich coming from the guy whose walking around in the Louisiana summer with leather trousers on!"

"This isn't heat," he scoffed and Nyssa rolled her eyes.

"This isn't heat," she mimicked perfectly his Greek accent, "I'm a big tough tiger, I can roast away in leathers and not feel it! Please! Do you need something or did you just follow me to insult me?"

He looked angry but she could smell amusement in him so she smiled, the smell dissipated under a wave of anger and his frown became more pronounced.

"Screw you, I'm going home," Nyssa muttered and turned to leave, how could her hero turn out to be such a disappointment?

But then he wasn't really, he was just as he had been all that long time ago, still as handsome and fierce looking. A sculpted Grecian face, straight nose, proud yet stubborn chin with a few day old stubble growing over it, his wavy, thick black hair fell into his grey eyes and his tall lean body bulged with pure, dangerous muscle. He radiated anger and menace from his very honey toned skin and his eight pack rippled under his tight black t-shirt with every breath he took. Even the humans spotted their was something lethal and not altogether human about this man or tiger, he was too graceful yet to masculine, too vigilant and alert looking, yet his lazy walk contrasted deeply with that. He was coiled like a spring, he put people and Weres alike on tender hooks whenever he was in their presence as if he were sizing them up for the best way to kill.

Nyssa sighed wistfully, what kind of female would a tiger such as he have for a mate? Would he love and protect her as much as he guarded his own skin? Would he be a kind and attentive lover? She snorted, no he would be rough and wild, there was no play in a man like that.

Lysander watched her walk away from him, he wasn't entirely sure why he had followed her, why he was following her now, why he was amused by her cheek and beguiled by her smiles. Maybe he should kill her, that would solve the problem. Yet how could he do such a thing when his stomach had literally churned and his heart had roiled at himself when he saw the reddened finger makes on her upper arm. Nyssa turned and pinned him with a gimlet glare.

"Why are you still following me?" she snapped, "looking for a home kitty, there's a nice pound down the way why don't you find it. I'm sure the dogs would just love you."

Lysander couldn't help letting the muscles in his face relax a little, he was so tempted to smile at her. "Why do you bait me so? When I could kill you right here and right now?"

He made to reach for her throat but she slapped his hand back, the crack echoed slightly through the air and Nyssa almost ran at the look on his face, but she stood her ground, for the first time that night she sincerely did not want to turn her back on him. She lifted a hand to protect her face. Lysander didn't know why that made him mad, it made him mad at himself that he would scare her so, it made him mad at her for being scared and then showing him her weakness.

"Grow up," he snarled as he strolled past her, "you would be dead now if I wanted you to be!"

"Do you just like to frighten me?"

Lysander felt ashamed of himself and he hated her for that.

"Are you frightened?" She considered for a moment.

"I wasn't before but you've scared me a little."

Lysander arched a skeptical brow. "A little?"

"I'm not inflating your ego for you," Nyssa said loftily and Lysander let himself slip, he smiled. Her eyes did not smile back this time, in fact they looked rather wary, he didn't want that.

Nyssa watched the moody tiger and decided she would never understand him so she shrugged and carried on her way back towards the hotel she would stay at tonight. Her tiger hero followed and Nyssa looked down at his hand, blood smeared its knuckles, she reached out for it but he hissed and pulled it back.

"What's your bug, man," Nyssa said exasperatedly, having grown up with hippies it was hard not to use their phrases. "I was only seeing how much damage you've done."

Lysander held his hand up to his face and brought it to his mouth, he licked it exactly the way a tiger would soothe its injured paw, Nyssa watched the action of his tongue move over his torn skin, she was agape, almost drooling, Lysander flicked his eyes up and caught her staring. Nyssa quickly averted her gaze, blushing furiously, but not before seeing his hot stare, he smiled then, but it was wicked and full of naughty thoughts.

Lysander let out a low, rumbling laugh and watched little Nyssa shudder, he liked it, his sex swelled to its enormous size. He followed her all the way to a fancy hotel, under the bright lights of the entrance hall Lysander saw people throw nervous glances his way then to Nyssa. She was so pretty and clean looking, so innocent and harmless next to him, when they got to the counter the clerk, who was a man in his mid fifties, gave them a double glance. Nyssa smiled at him and he gave her a sad sort of look.

"A room please," Nyssa said politely, the clerk shifted a fearful yet disgusted look at Lysander, who was confused, he didn't think the man's emotions warranted the situation.

"For how many?" the man asked, he was dreading the answer, Lysander could tell, and all the while the clerks eyes flickered back to him.

"Just one."

"Are you sure, Miss?" The man asked and it was then that Lysander understood the man's emotions. The man thought that he was Nyssa's lover, he thought he might be abusing Nyssa, taking advantage of such a young fresh faced beauty, who obviously was not acquainted to the harsher side of life. If only the clerk knew.

"Quite sure thank you," Nyssa said, her voice was low and kind, her smile softened as though she knew what was wrong with the man also. The man gave her a key.

"Room 585, Miss. Desmond will escort you, won't you Desmond?" The clerk looked pointedly at the young trainee beside him, a young and handsome African American man looked up and smiled charmingly. What with people in this country and smiling? Lysander growled at the thought.

"And please do not hesitate to call to the front desk if you have any disturbances or trouble."

The man stressed this point, clearly worried for her safety, Lysander smiled evilly at the clerk, even though he was impressed by his thoughtfulness.

"Don't worry I'll take care of her," Lysander said, his gravely voice making his words even more deadly.

Even Nyssa's smile faltered, Desmond glanced at the clerk who was tight-lipped and white faced, he gave a stiff nod and they were led away to the elevator.


	3. Chapter 3

They travelled up in the elevator with Desmond standing in front of them, Lysander fixed his eyes on that back of the guys head and imagined tearing him to bits, the smell of lust that came from him when he had looked at Nyssa at the desk was turning him feral. So much so that he did not stop to think about why he was angry about it. When the doors dinged open on the right floor, Desmond bravely walked them down to the room even though trickles of sweat had begun to slide down his face under the tigers insane stare, like a cat he refused to blink. At the door his courage gave out and he ran for the elevator without his tip, Lysander chuckled darkly and turned to look at Nyssa. She arched a brow at him.

"Why are you still here?" she asked, but he ignored her, answering her would mean having to answer himself and right at that moment, he didn't know the answer, so he wanted to forget the question. Lysander stepped closer to her, crowding her space the way male tigers did to their females in the wild, he inhaled deeply.

"You smell like …mmm," he purred, Lysander, if he had not been in such a stupor of lust would have been shocked, he never purred! But that scent … "What is it?"

"Coco butter," Nyssa answered promptly, breathlessly, the mating scent he was given off was enough to make her salivate. She was the worlds biggest moron! She had thought he was walking her home and he thought he was getting sex! And the worst part of it all was - he was right!

A female tiger could not be this aware of a male and not respond, it just wasn't possible, it didn't matter that she had not had sex in her mind and that this was her famous hero that saved her. They were doing a the horizontal tango in five, four, three ….

Lysander unlocked the door with his powers and backed her in to the dark room, he didn't need a light to see her clearly. She stood there shivering with need, her scent wild in the air, her lips parted on a pant. Lysander moved close to her, so close her breasts brushed his chest and he hissed, he bent his head and licked her lips gently but quickly, the way a cat would lap at cream. She moaned and the tiger in her, the side that was wholly animal took over. As in the wild Nyssa began to circle Lysander, her eyes fixed completely on him, she rubbed her body along his, Lysander dematerialised their clothes. She was behind him so he could only feel her warm skin and breath, she moved around so he could see her and Lysander felt his gut tighten at the same time as his groin, painfully so in the latter case. Her body was a perfect and equal merge of firm and soft, firm, toned thighs and soft, full breasts, a soft flat stomach and flared rounded hips. Covered in an expanse of lickable flesh like the terrain of cinnamon coloured wilderness, he wanted to bathe in her scent until he was drunk with it.

Nyssa and Lysander's moans mingled loudly in the blackness of the room when she run her fingers through his thick hair, his head fell back, exposing his throat. It was the first time he had ever allowed himself to be in such a precarious position, she could very well slit his throat and he would be able to do little to stop her. Instead she stepped closer and went up on her tiptoes and gave him a love 'bite' on his neck, a laugh rumbled under her lips and tongue.

"You are feisty, little Nyssa," Nyssa smiled at how he stretched the 'Nee' until it ended on a hiss, she backed away form him and crawled on to the bed, her head back on the pillow she lay her body out for him.

Lysander's eyes raked her hungrily, his body was hard and thrusting out, he knelt on the bed and let his hand trail down the valley between her breasts down towards her ebony curls in the junction of her thighs.

Lysander heard Nyssa suck in her breath in sharply and grinned. He would savour her like no other, for once in the longest time she made feel more then anger and irritation or hate, she had shocked him, surprised him, made him feel happiness and shame, the variety of it was refreshing. He leant down and crushed his lips to hers, they were soft and yielding and his cock twitched when he swirled his tongue inside her mouth and she gasped. When he pulled back she was breathless and Lysander could not wait any longer, he knew she was Arcadian and he knew that she would not respond to him the way a Katagaria female would, that there was no need for roughness or over use of strength, no chance of her turning on him hen she came. His hands parted her knees and as prepared to drive into her when Nyssa sat up under him, before he could speak she cupped him in her warm hand and rolled him on to his back.

"I've waited years to see you again," she whispered, staring into his eyes.

"Have you?" he croaked, suffering from lack of breath.

"Yes."

"Why?" She smile a smile that made his heart ache.

"Because you saved me, I owe you my life."

Before he could say anything Nyssa bent her head and took him into her mouth, Lysander roared ferociously. During the heat of sex was when tigers were at their noisiest and true to form Lysander's roar reverberated off the walls, Nyssa laughed and it tickled the head of his sex, causing him to have to lock his jaw to keep from making more noise, he panted through his nose as pleasure the likes of which he had never experienced raked his body.

She took the whole length of him into her mouth and tasted the very essence of him, it didn't occur to Nyssa that what she was doing might be wrong, that she knew nothing about this tiger, not even his name. All she knew is that she wanted him like nothing else, it went beyond gratitude, beyond everything, she wanted to pleasure him like no one else could.

Lysander's grip in her hair tightened and he had to consciously loosen it, though most sane thought had fled him the moment her mouth had consumed him, there was a curious sensation like he was being swallowed, it was astounding. Over the centuries he had had sex often in many different places and positions, but never had a female done this to him before, never had she put his pleasure before her own. Lysander looked down, he wanted to make her feel as he felt, pulling her back from him he put her beneath him again. She looked at him curiously.

"I don't want it over before this has begun, Nyssa," he breathed and moved his hand down to test her readiness, she moaned at the contact of his fingers. He parted her thighs more tenderly then he had ever handled a woman in his life, he lowered himself down on to her body and proceeded to lick and tease the skin of her neck, she was purring delightedly. Lysander stared at her neck imagining biting hard on the nape as he held her into place and rammed into her from behind until both cried out in release, but there was no time, patience was gone. It was too urgent for both of them, they both needed relief from the boiling tension in their bodies, in their blood.

Lysander pulled Nyssa's legs open wider and plunged into her, they both growled loudly, nothing could ease the hard, heavy hotness in his groin but true wild abandon. He thrust hard and deep, relishing her cries that mixed with his own heavy breathing and moans of ecstasy.

Nyssa was on fire, her body crawling with flames, she was clinging to his shoulders, crying out for release and when it came, it was burning and raw and utterly consuming. But it wasn't enough for him, he carried on pounding, intensifying her pleasure until she was screaming and had fell into the wild heat of insanity that had her mindless with need, had her meeting him thrust for thrust.

"Nyssa, Nyssa," he crooned in her ear, Lysander did not connect this woman with the little girl he met all those years ago, she was young that was true, but females always matured faster then their males, especially Arcadians. The clerk at the desk was wrong, he wasn't taking advantage of her, nor was she of him, they had needed each other at that moment, they knew what they were doing. Who knew, this might be the first Arcadian he was able to stand, if they didn't let politics get in the way of things.

Nyssa was on the verge of her second orgasm, he moved faster into her, and laughed when she cried out, he rode her through it fiercely as his body's own needs demanded attention, once she was sated he would let himself have relief.

As he thrust Lysander smiled, Savitar needed a medal for sending him to New Orleans ….

Lysander froze, his body went cold, he looked down at Nyssa purring contentedly under him and pulled out of her instantly, jumping off the bed he stared down at her in horror. Lysander was one of the oldest were-hunters there was, he knew Savitar as well as anybody could know him and the guy wouldn't send someone here for no reason. Lysander run his hands through his hair and realised they were shaking. He prayed Savitar hadn't let him do what he thought he'd done.

_Too late_, an evil voice in the back of his mind said.

"What's wrong?" Nyssa sat up and was looking at him as though he were possessed, Lysander shook his head, momentarily losing his voice.

"Nothing, nothing," he muttered shakily and watched as Nyssa's gaze turned frightened, he saw her pull the sheet up and over her naked breasts, holding it to her as she carefully got out the bed. Her fear was thick in the air and it called to the predator in him, yet instead of making him want to attack like it would most animals, he wanted to go to her, to soothe her.

Yeah, right! How the hell was that gonna happen when he was barely stable himself?

Nyssa flashed her clothes on and quietly edged towards the door, if it wasn't for the fact that his gaze was so focused on her she might been able to slip away. She had the stealth that all felines possessed, a way of moving so quickly and smoothly, with such agility that they could be gone before you realised what you were looking at. She had the manner of someone who was used to finding herself in situations that could turn nasty, of someone who knew from experience that it was best to leave as quickly and quietly as possible in case she should be hurt. Had she been hurt? The thought sent a killing rage through him and it showed on his face, for like a cat that had been caught, she stopped moving and stayed so completely still, unblinking and small like an alley cat spotting a dog.

"Nyssa, your fine, I won't hurt you!" Nerves made his voice and words come out harsher and sterner then he meant them and he saw her wince, she had her face down cast, her eyes studying the carpet, her lips were moving rapidly. Lysander stared at them.

'_Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Please, Gods get me out of this! Shit, shit, shit! Something, someone. Must get out. Okay. I'm okay.'_

Her silent tirade went on and Lysander felt disgusted with himself, none of this was her fault, but as he was about to move towards her there was a flash in the room. Lysander looked up to see Savitar standing in front of him with his head turned watching Nyssa, who had used the confusion of the flash to run for the door.

"Its locked, little tiger lady, your not getting out," he said with a laugh, Lysander saw Nyssa's shoulders slump and she turned to face them, her skin looking unhealthily pasty under its tint.

"Who the fuck are you and why aren't you letting me go?" she snapped, Lysander was taken aback by the abrupt change in her moods, however he thought it best to calm her in case Savitar chose to fry her, but fortunately Savitar laughed.

"I am Savitar, I trust you've heard of me?" He laughed darkly when Nyssa looked as if she were about to faint. Savitar turned to face Lysander.

"So I could hear you damning me in your thoughts while I was surfing, truly messed up the vibe, tiger."

"Why did you do it?" Lysander bit out between clenched teeth.

"Do what?" Savitar taunted and Lysander growled.

"You know what, you bastard! You sent me here knowing I would meet her! She's mine, isn't she?"

Savitar smiled wider and it Lysander could feel his fangs lengthening as he fought to stay in control, if he allowed himself to flash to tiger form he would run for Savitar and attack him, and that would be the end of him. As powerful as Lysander was, Savitar was even more so.

"Of all the people in this fucking world who knows what its like to have fate play poker with their life, I would have thought you would be one of those that wouldn't play lightly with another's."

Savitar's face hardened for a moment then shrugged.

"I was taking a leaf out of Acheron's book, you know giving good advice and all that, being the mystic know-who that throws you a bone. It was up to you what you did with it."

Lysander's head was spinning with the crap he was saying, the casual way Savitar said it, Lysander growled threateningly.

Savitar shrugged with a resigned look on his face and turned to Nyssa again who was watching them with her arms folded over her chest looking pissed off. Savitar did a mock bow.

"Nyssa Castellanos, meet your mate Lysander Stephanos."

Nyssa almost choked on her own tongue as she tried to stammer out something but the words remained sluggish and unmovable on her tongue. She looked at 'Lysander' wanting him to deny it, not about him being her mate oddly enough, but about him being the legendary Lysander Stephanos. One of the most feared slayers in the world, the Arcadians _and _the Katagaria hated him, he had a bounty on his head like no other. Lysander did not look at her, his gaze was fixed upon Savitar, his stare murderous.

"Wh - how - err … But the mark?"

Lysander turned his gaze to hers, it was as hard as the first time she met him tonight. No, that was wrong, he had never stared at her so and it unnerved her completely, the guy looked unhinged.

"It'll come," Savitar assured her cheerfully, again she looked to Lysander and he was looking disgusted.

"Take it back!" he demanded.

"Can't mess with fate, tiger," Savitar said and Lysander looked practically apoplectic.

"But you've already messed with fate," Nyssa said, unconsciously cradling her left hand, palm up in her right.

"Not really, I just asked if Lysander had been to Sanctuary, he chose to go there, where you would be. Besides, your fated to be together, doesn't it strike you as odd that you meet again after all these years. That he is the first man you've ever _really _wanted sexually -" Nyssa blushed furiously, "And that she is the only woman in literally centuries that makes you think of other things besides your revenge?"

"She's Arcadian!" Lysander snarled, raking her with a glare, it was his tone that stung her more then his words.

"I didn't see that worrying you when you followed me here and came to my bed!" Nyssa snapped back, Savitar laughed lightly.

"Yeah, well excuse me lady but I didn't think it was such a big deal at the time, I mean you weren't bothered by a little old thing like what my name was when you invited me there! So what's that make you?"

Now that hurt. Badly. Nyssa felt her face flush furiously and her eyes filled with angry tears, Savitar looked away from her sorrow and gave Lysander a dirty look.

"It makes me stupid, because if I had found it out I wouldn't have touched you! You really are an animal!"

"I'm glad you now see your 'hero' for what he is!"

Savitar flashed out of the room without a word and it stunned them both in to silence, Nyssa stared at where Savitar had been moments before, truth be told she missed his presence, he had been her ally of sorts. Lysander stared at Nyssa, his mate. The words sent acid hatred through him, Arcadians had taken everything from him and now his chance to have a normal relationship was gone because he was fixed to her. Nyssa met his eyes, the jumble of strong emotions there scalded him, but he hardened himself to her.

"What now?" she asked stiffly.

"I don't care about you but I'm going home."

With that he flashed out of the hotel room leaving Nyssa staring into space for the second time in minutes, she sniffed and blinked rapidly. Walking into the bathroom she stripped off her clothes and adjusted the shower until it was a little under scorching, she stepped under and gasped at the heat. It was so hot it made her skin itch as she scrubbed, but it was the unpleasant tingle of heat that gathered about her eyes that made her angry. The spray fell over her head and on to her back where she gasped as it hit the skin that was unused to such a temperature, she scrubbed. She gasped and choked and sobbed. The tears somehow felt hotter the shower water and while she was holding on to the side of the tub to keep herself up while she cried, a burning pain different to that which she was already experiencing cut across her palm. The geometric mating mark swirled into place, it appeared so suddenly, unexpected even though it had been anticipated, Nyssa's grip loosened, she slipped and her head hit hard on the side of the white tub, she turned it red with her blood.

Curling up in the bath Nyssa cried the way had when she was a little girl, ever since the slaughter of her family she had been alone in the world, no one to like or care for her. She had never had the dreams of other females, of finding her mate and living happily ever after, Nyssa had just concentrated on trying to get through the day. On surviving the month and passing through another year, the years truly had felt endless, living with no one that had loved her or spoken even kindly to her. Back at Iri'ni she was known as being sarcastic, tough-minded, uncaring and flippant, she could handle herself on most occasions and when she couldn't she had a supply of weapons that helped. Perhaps she'd never had anyone because she had forced herself to believe she needed no one, but the truth was she was terribly lonely.

If she passed up the chance to be Lysander's mate, she passed up her chance of having a family, of having someone to call her own once more. Surely that was worth drying up her tears and fighting for. And once he'd calmed down, Lysander might see it too. Nyssa pulled herself from the tub and began to dry herself with the towel, she looked through the open door to the rumpled bed.

No, she reminded herself, she wasn't strong or tough, she was tired of being alone and she felt cracked by the constant cruelty she had to see, she wanted it to end. But she would fight for this, even though she was being held together by nothing more then prayers she would continue until she was finally broken. Question was, would Lysander be the one to do it?


	4. Chapter 4

Between two large trees Lysander paced in human form, he was both angry and aroused and in this state he was ferocious to anything that came near him. Naked and sweating his huge erect member hung between his legs, he was unsated and in pain, his blood was hot and the tiger in him was growling to be joined with his mate once more. But he could not let lust dictate his reason, not until he had calmed down at least, in this state he was likely to hurt Nyssa if he went near her.

Nyssa.

Tilting his head back until the tendons in his neck strained Lysander gripped his black hair, pulling until it screamed at the roots and he groaned. The way she had looked at him! He was a prick, he'd hurt her so badly he knew it, he could smell it in the air the moment he'd opened his mouth. But mated to an Arcadian, how could the fates be this cruel? Well, Lysander knew how, they were heartless bitches who lived to screw with peoples happiness, but they seemed to have surpassed themselves this time.

Growling at the injustice of the situation and the general shittiness of the world in general Lysander flashed himself into his tiger form and flew into a rage. The damage he wrought was astounding, slashes and gouges from his claws ran deep in the tree until they bled out their sap. The grass and the huge leaves were torn to ribbons, circular tracks were scored into the earth like ravines by his lethal nails. He roared and snarled at nothing and at everything until he heard a gasp, Lysander immediately went into a threatening crouch while his eyes searched the area for the source of the sound.

Nyssa stood looking innocently sensuous standing behind a flourishing bush of pink flowers, a light rain began to fall and it trickled through her loosely tied back hair, making it look darker and shinier. It moved over her skin and speckled the front of her pinafore dress, her feet were bare and she shivered, while her wide eyes skittered over what was before her.

Lysander flashed into human form again, his eyes staring at her through his haphazardly fallen hair, the way he would watch his prey through tall grass. His chest heaving, his body nude to her gaze he hardened at just seeing her again, he saw her eyes look away and her cheeks flush.

It was evident she was no longer comfortable for her to see him like that, he flashed on a pair of loose, black silk, Indian pants, everything else was bare.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, his normally gravelly voice almost non-existent through his roaring.

"I felt the mating mark," she said softly, Lysander didn't respond, only a clenching of his fist told her he had heard.

"Well, I thought there were some pressing issues we needed to discuss, don't you agree?"

Her voice was haughty and disdainful, she had caught him acting like a rabid animal and now that's all she thought him.

"No."

"No?" A tic moved in her jaw, she was angry, "what do you mean no?"

"I mean I don't want to talk."

"Well, I do!"

"Bully for you," Lysander moved towards the watering hole, in his frenzy he had torn open an old scar on his shoulder. To his chagrin she followed and waited, her arms folded over her chest, her hip sticking out sexily while she tapped an impatient foot.

"What is your problem?"

"You," he suggested casually, uncaring of her feelings and stripping his pants off, he waded in the water just as he was hit by the scent of lust so strong he hunched, doubled over. Looking back over his shoulder he cast her a furious glare.

"Leave! This instant!"

Nyssa almost jumped out of her skin and left dust behind her as she hurried to comply to his orders and Lysander almost laughed. He waited until she had left him completely alone before his body relaxed, he huffed out a quiet laugh and moved deeper into the water, wincing as the cool water touched his hot erection. He reached down and handled himself gently, he sneaked a look over his shoulder to make sure Nyssa wasn't spying. He might hate her Arcadian blood but it didn't mean he didn't desire her.

Nyssa felt like someone had tied her to the electric chair and was taking little zaps at her for shits and giggles every time she tried to sit down, every time she moved, her nerves were jumping so much she literally twitched. How in hell could she mate with someone like him? He'd rip her throat out for the slightest infraction. But she had to try, didn't she? If she gave up now on fate, on destiny, did she deserve to have the life she wished for? Did she deserve to gain her treasure when she feared to tread near the dragon?

A subtle, dull cracking noise of a twig. It was deliberate of course, Lysander moved like the wind, he was the dirt under his feet, he was the one with the air he breathed, none of the elements betrayed his presence unless he wished it to. He was giving her time to prepare herself, perhaps he liked her more then he let on, even to himself, Nyssa smiled to herself before arranging her face into a stern mask. Lysander appeared, dripping wet and wearing the Indian pants once again, to both Nyssa's relief and disappointment, she put all her effort into supporting her relief. He raised a mocking eyebrow.

"Still here?"

"Obviously," she snapped back nastily. "Can you talk civilly now?"

He gave a indistinct grunt that she took as a yes, with a sigh for strength Nyssa began to pace where Lysander had been doing the same thing before she arrived.

"We are in a difficult situation," Nyssa started her prepared speech and felt like an idiot, she was a doer not a speaker, wringing her hands she muddled on not catching his eye. "But we could make this a lot easier on ourselves. I want one day to perhaps have children and I'm sure that you want the same -"

"I don't." That took her aback.

"How can you not?"

Lysander rolled his eyes and looked at her like she was dim. "Why would I want a group of brats running around expecting me to look after them?"

"Well, you wouldn't, would you? I would!"

"And why would I take a chance of procreating more of the Arcadian species?"

Nyssa did not gape but it was a near thing, instead she gave him a strange look, it sent shivers through him and he didn't know it then but it would be a look that would haunt him. She tilted her head to the side and her dark hair a little loose fell over her forehead, her dark eyes were not narrowed but not wide, they were intense as they bored into his. The first time since she came to find him she met his eyes, like she was trying to name a alien specimen.

"But they'd be your children …"

"Not if I don't claim them."

Nyssa blew out a breath, this wasn't going to be easy.

"Okay, look, your really fucking up my planned speech right now -"

"I noticed." Nyssa growled and Lysander bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"Well just shut up and listen. Thank you. Right, well, what I'm thinking is that we need to spend some time getting to know each other, and maybe you'll see I'm not so bad and can be lived with and I'll think the same about you …." she grimaced almost to herself as her eyes raked him. "Eventually."

Lysander didn't know whether to laugh or be indignant, she was like a young college freshman, full of life and not enough experience of it, cocky and sarcastic and confident. He could handle her without breaking a sweat.

"Have you considered that I don't want you?" Lysander said and moved past her, casually flashing himself into tiger form he pranced off through the greenery, Nyssa followed clumsily behind, tripping and stumbling all the way.

"Well, get used to me, I am so staying."

Nyssa wasn't sure but she could swear she heard him laugh evilly.

****

"You know, people automatically think that countries that are so humid and hot during the day are the same at night," Nyssa shivered again as she addressed Lysander's prone animal form casually from across the small clearing where they had settled. "Well, I would like to confirm that that is bullshit."

Lysander lifted his furry head to pin her with a droll stare then looked back down again, Nyssa's stomach rumbled and she pouted in a self-pitying type of way.

_Why don't you just go home?_

Lysander looked up again as he sent the mental thought to her, she was still in her thin dress, her hair was soaked from the last tropical rain they had just had. She was sitting with her legs drawn up and her back against a tree.

"Not until you agree to mate with me," she said mutinously, "you know you should be happy, most of the time it's the males doing all the chasing, be flattered."

_I don't want a mate remember? Especially not you._

"Charming," she grumbled under her breath. His words should hurt her but the way Nyssa saw it was, she was a young, fit, modern chick married to a grizzled, grumpy old geezer, she would have to take his grousing with a pinch of salt. So she decided she wouldn't leave his side, she would bug him into agreeing. Nyssa stared at Lysander's thick orange fur, bisected with the ebony stripes, in tiger form he was just as attention-grabbing as he was in human form, he was terrific in a most deadly and frightening way. She noticed he was staring back at her.

"What?"

_If your cold put something on rather then a frilly sack!_

Nyssa poked her tongue out at him. "I'll have you know they were wearing something like this at Paris fashion week!" She was offended, she had great style. "But I wouldn't expect a jungle bum to know anything about style and class, so shush!"

_I got style, little girl and your cramping it!_

"Tough shit!"

Lysander roared and Nyssa winced then gave him a is-that-necessary kind of look.

They fell into uneasy silence with Lysander trying not to look at Nyssa and Nyssa trying to pretend she wasn't cold. Truth was she was freezing but she had never been taught how to master her powers and what she had learnt had been self-taught all for the day when she would impress her 'hero'.

Yeeeaaaahh, her hero was likely to crack a rib laughing at any attempt of magic that she tried, she'd rather go without warmth all night then be humiliated, as she always did …

Nyssa wondered what Rumba was doing back at Iri'ni, was he somewhere in his stone cold missing her presence? Doubtful.

Was the fact that she wasn't propped up the bar with her berretta in its holster on her hip making the place less homey and lonely for Rumba as he worked his night shift? Double doubtful. The slight internal warmth that she had gotten from bugging Lysander so much went out as she thought how alone she was in the world, how unloved … she shivered more from the loss of her little light then the actual cold.

"Will you just put a damn sweater on!" Lysander was in human form and was standing up, his fists clenched at his sides, Nyssa cast him a wary look.

"I'm fine," she said more timidly then she would have liked, but he looked dangerous with the crescent moonlight catching his eyes and making them glowing orbs.

"You know what fine, if you freeze to death then I'll get rid of this abomination of my hand and our problems are solved!"

Nyssa wanted to stay quiet but she felt that like a stinging slap, damn, she was just too sensitive!

"That's a horrible thing to say," she murmured looking down at her frozen toes.

She did not see Lysander rub a hand over his face, everything that concerned her consumed him with worry or guilt and he hated that. He hated that she attracted him on a level that was indefinable, that she amused him to no end, that he was soothed by her presence and worried for her safety and well-being. He looked down and saw the said abomination and wanted nothing more then to cut his hand off, cut away the limb and cut away her, but fate didn't work like that. He was fused to her, tied, bound, the mark is a mere physical symbol of their connection. Like a wedding ring or the Bindi, but take it away and they were still tied together. At that moment Lysander hated Savitar just that little bit more then he hated himself.

"Just put something warm on, okay," with a conscious effort Lysander made his voice go from angry to exasperated, he was a little surprised when Nyssa pinned him with a half angry half exasperated glare of her own.

"I. Can't." She said it very slowly as if he were mentally slow.

"You've not learnt to use your magic?"

"Correct Einstein."

Her sarcasm was grinding on him, he clenched his teeth and chose to ignore it. "Why weren't you taught?"

Nyssa couldn't bare to look up so she shrugged and continued to stare at her feet an said as nonchalantly as she could.

"Where I live the animals don't like me very much …"

"Why do you talk them to death too?"

Lysander let his comment slip out without thinking, he was automatically nasty and sarcastic to everyone, he saw her shoulders lower an inch more. She was ashamed. Lysander couldn't think why but the thought of her being so ashamed of something that was not her fault hurt him, it angered him. Crouching down before her he placed his finger under her chin and raised her face to him, she kept her eyes downcast.

"Would you like some warm clothing?"

Her eyes flickered up at his softened tone and Lysander had an inexplicable desire to kiss her and hug her close to his chest.

"Yes please," she sounded like a little girl again and a fresh wave of guilt cut him deep, had he not left her perhaps she would be happy now…

Sighing to himself he flashed a pair of kaki combat trouser on and a long sleeved shirt, they were over sized and didn't matched, Lysander watched as she stood up and held her arms out, the cuffs fell well past her fingertips, she looked adorable.

"Sorry its not couture," he said scratching the back of his neck awkwardly and she smiled at him so sweetly his chest seized up.

"How do you know about couture?"

"I haven't always been a jungle bum."

"I bet."

Lysander unwillingly gave her some semblance of a smile and walked back to his worn in patch of earth where he intended to sleep, Nyssa followed.

"May I sleep next to you tonight?"

Lysander looked up in shock and all he saw were two wide eyes, a fathomless beauty stood before him asking to sleep at his side. Lysander almost said yes but he remembered his dreams, he would hurt her if he woke from a nightmare and slashed with his claws.

"No."

Nyssa's petite little face closed down immediately and she nodded with a small but insincere smile and moved away from him to her tree where she curled up. Lysander wanted to call her back but he couldn't it was for her own good, his chest was literally aching, he couldn't remember last time he caused someone pain that wasn't physical and the last time it had happened to him he saw he would kill the next person to try.

Offering a silent prayer up to the Gods that Savitar die riddled with pain and sores, he flashed into tiger form and slept.


	5. Chapter 5

Without warning Lysander came awake ready for attack, his growl was utterly feral and ferocious as his claws tore into the ground and swiped at the air. A warm pressure pushed from his side with a cry of alarm that had him snapping his eyes open and blinking away the remnants of a nightmare. Breathing heavily through his nostrils Lysander looked over to see Nyssa curled in the foetal position a little way away, he flashed himself into human form, shaking from fear, not only from his dream, but from almost killing Nyssa.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked urgently and marched to her side, prying her arms from her face.

"Does the fact that you shortened my life span by at least two centuries count?" she replied flippantly and Lysander growled again, she winced.

"Are you hurt!"

"N -no."

Lysander let go of her wrist and before he turned away he saw her rub them and he closed his eyes against a rush of shame and guilt. She had to stay away from him otherwise he would end up killing her, he looked down at his big, calloused hand, he was destined to hurt and harm everyone that came within his reach. He turned back on her with a snarl.

"Well, it would have been your own fault if I had!"

Nyssa gave him an arch stare. "Hmm, your claws sticking my flesh, how exactly is that my fault again?"

"I told you not to sleep beside me -" Lysander began but Nyssa cut over him.

"Ah, ah, ah, no. You said I wasn't allowed to sleep next to you. If you'd told me not to sleep next to you because you freak out in your sleep I would have listened!"

"Oh, so I say I don't want you to do something and you completely disregard what I say! Typical Arcadian! Only think about what you want!"

Ignoring the slur on her race Nyssa stood up and strode towards him as if she were marching into the thick of a fight, her face set and determined and a little pissed off. The act was ruined by the fact that the top of her head just touched the underside of his chin, so that she had to tilt her head to meet his hard yet beautiful eyes.

"I didn't do it to piss you off," Nyssa said gently, her hand crept up to touch his bare chest, he caught it in a bone-crushing grip, she ignored the pain. "I did it because I want to be close to you."

Lysander felt like he couldn't breathe, she was so adorable, staring up at him with those kind eyes, eyes that should never have looked his way.

"Your hurting me, Lysander."

He immediately relaxed his grip but didn't release her, instead he examined her wrist, an ugly bluish purple bruise the shape of his fingers discoloured her beautiful skin, it made bile rise in his throat that he would do this to her.

"You see why I can't have you near me," Lysander muttered so softly that it bought an ache to Nyssa's chest. "I'm too wild. Your human, you can't understand an animal and I can't understand you."

Nyssa didn't think that was true, but she didn't say it. She thought she understood his animal side well enough and even if she didn't understand it she could accept him, he was having the problem with accepting.

"We could try," Nyssa whispered back, "we are mates, we could try? There must be some way of working this all out, mustn't there? I feel something inside for you, you must feel it for me too."

He did, all the time, he wanted to nuzzle her, lick her, kiss and pet her, crouch close around her when she slept and have her smile at him in the morning light.

"Your so fragile," Lysander muttered almost to himself whilst staring at the bruises he'd caused on her wrist. Nyssa felt irritation nick at her insides when he said that, obviously he thought she was some little human who fainted at the first sign of trouble, true she wasn't as physically powerful as him but she sure as hell was just as smart and quick to think on her feet. When she had to fend off attacks from Katagaria while she was outside Iri'ni had been no easy feat, nor had it been easy when she had gone through her first few mating seasons, being young and inexperienced she could easily have been taken by most of the inhabitants of Iri'ni but she had had the sense to escape for those days. Thinking of it now made her shiver, the animals had smelt that she was ripening and become more virile towards her, had she stayed through those days she would have been raped.

"I'm tougher then I look," Nyssa said and Lysander had the urge to smile at the annoyance in her voice. "Please, Lysander."

He closed his eyes at the sweet sound of his name on her lips, he exhaled loudly and opened his eyes again. And all he could see in the dark night was her, he forgot where he was and who he was, who she was and why he could not love her, for that moment in time Lysander let himself feel more then hate, and with a sigh that brought tears to Nyssa's eyes, he felt free. Lifting her wrist to his mouth he's roughly smooth tongue licked away the hurt and replaced it with burning desire, Nyssa stepped closer to him and worked her way into his arms. She lifted herself up on tiptoes demanding a kiss, Lysander smiled at this before he claimed her mouth in a lingering kiss, that was tender and oh so sweet. He lowered them to their knees still exploring her lush mouth, Lysander's hands trailed up Nyssa's sides and she wiggled closer, he moved them lightly over her breasts and she shivered; Lysander smiled so widely he could barely keep kissing her. He moved his hands higher to bury them in her thick hair, he bunched it in his hands and revelled in the satin soft feel of it on his skin while her silky tongue moved against his. His hands skimmed down her back and cupped her ass, she moaned into his mouth and suddenly her own hands were on him and it made Lysander's insides jump so much he lost his rhythm but it didn't matter because Nyssa took over.

Nyssa gathered all her courage and pushed gently at Lysander's chest so that he lay back on the softened ground, he complied so easily that Nyssa wondered briefly whether he was just playing around with her, but no, she looked in his eyes and the molten desire there was sincere. It made her tingle from the inside out.

Nyssa quickly undressed and her hands went to Lysander's jeans, his breath caught in his throat as she bent her head to gently tongue the zipper, it made him moan as if her tongue had already found his flesh. Whenever he had taken lovers before he had always been dominant and very in control, never once had he allowed his lovers to be on top or to touch him the way Nyssa had; he was amazed at himself now. The way he lay waiting for her to do as she will with him, he relished what was to come.

Making quick work of his pants, Nyssa sat back on her heels to admire the perfection of his body, his tawny skin was scarred and marred in places but it didn't detract from his obvious beauty. As if self-conscious about his scars, Lysander's hand slipped up and rubbed over one particularly large one.

"Animals don't come with all the pieces," he murmured and Nyssa smiled, touched that he showed her this side of himself. Nyssa leant over him and placed her lips to his scar, then cupped the back of his neck so she could whisper over his lips before she kissed them.

"I have all I need."

Lysander didn't want to be moved by her, he didn't want his heart to go crazy in response to her touches and her words but not to do be was like trying not to breathe, simply impossible to do and uncomfortable to try. Never before had he worried about the way his body seemed to a lover, and the first time he made love to her, they were caught in the storm of wild passion, unable to see anything for what it really was. Now he had a strange sensation of wanting to be whole for her, it was stupid and also impossible, but it was the way he felt.

Nyssa pulled back and moved to straddle his waist, she slid her hand down his arm and slipped her fingers through his, Lysander felt the friction of their two mating marks connecting and he looked up to meet her hopeful eyes.

"Will you mate with me, Lysander? Please?"

Her voice cut him to his deepest core, how was he supposed to deny her at her most tempting, under the light of the moon their life together did not seem ridiculous or unbearable, it felt real and right. Why should he deny himself the comfort of her body for the rest of their lives?

"Mate with me, little Nyssa."

Nyssa felt tears fill her eyes and she blinked them away so he was clear to her vision, Nyssa moved her body down until the tip of his hard, thick erection touched her slick entrance. She moaned deeply while Lysander gritted his teeth against the impulse to thrust into her, but, he reminded himself, it was her decision to make. Only hers, solely hers. Nyssa's mouth was open as she panted and her eyes closed, while she slowly took every inch of him into the shelter of her body, her muscles clenched him and Lysander bit out a curse as the pleasure of it made him cross eyed. She gasped when she lifted and dropped down on him.

"Nyssa …" Lysander let out the plea without thinking and he heard her innocent giggle, her face then became very serious, she kissed the hand she held in her own before beginning to ride him slowly and leisurely.

"I accept you as you are, I will always hold you close in my heart. I will walk beside you forever."

The words instead of chilling him to the bones sent warmth through his body and seared his palm, as Lysander began to repeat the vows back to her, she rode him faster. Moving her hips furiously against him biting her bottom lip, her face a picture of ecstasy, she made Lysander gasp and almost forget what he was meant to say.

They finished the vows and both of them arched their backs as a pain shot through them, their gums ached while their fangs elongated. Lysander immediately ripped his hands from hers and the thiro ended. But she continued to ride them both into release.

"I don't want to bond with you," Lysander blurted out when the afterglow wore off, Nyssa sighed and with a shake of her head laughed softly, she leant down and laid a sweet, soft kiss upon his lips. She gave a groan of contentment before laying herself over his chest.

****

Lysander felt like they had laid like that for a lifetime, he had never felt more gratified and it made him rather amiable towards her. Even when she fell into a light doze on top of him he didn't mind, instead he contented himself with running a hand over her back and down her hair, cupping her cheek and stroking her lips. Never in his life had ever felt compelled to stay with a lover after sex, it was a physical scratch for a biological itch that, and as creepy and bizarre as it sounded, he sometimes wished he could live without. His high sex drive caused him to seek out women and diverted him from his path, his vengeance was all he had lived for. He mentally shook himself, what he still livedfor, having a mate in no way changed that.

_Didn't it?_

No, should the Arcadians he hunted try and use her as a form of bait, some sort of leverage over him, a her life for yours kind of thing, he would sacrifice her.

_Could he do it?_

How could he not? She meant nothing to him. Damn it, he wanted her to mean nothing to him! Nyssa made a soft sleepy noise and it had Lysander looking down, he checked if she were awake, handling her so carefully in case she wasn't, she made the noise again and he smiled kindly at her. Who would have thought he would feel something like that inside an Arcadian? The sex they had was like nothing else he'd ever experienced.

"What is it about you that captivates me so?" Lysander breathed and watched her stir at the sound of his voice. She frowned and pouted then opened her eyes, still dazed and sleepy she rubbed her face against his bare chest, making his nipple grow hard as well as other things …

"Did you say something?"

"No," Lysander replied, she nodded and rolled off him. Lysander felt rather numb and stiff from laying on his back for so long yet a part of him ached from the loss of her slight weight on him, her warmth lingered only for a time then evaporated.

Nyssa stretched, her naked breasts thrusting out as she arched her back, she turned her eyes to him with a happy smile, anyone would think she was truly happy about being mated to him! Simultaneously they rolled on to their sides and faced one another, both propping themselves up on an elbow, still Nyssa's smile didn't falter, if anything it shone. Lysander couldn't fathom where her happiness came from. How could she possibly be happy to be mated? She had been forced into some sick type of marriage with him no less, a tiger that would sacrifice her in a heartbeat for a chance at his revenge. A tiger that hated her race and what she was, one that had no thoughts of taking care of her, just meeting up with her now and again whenever celibacy got too much. Perhaps its that she still thought him her hero, Lysander felt a heat flush his skin, he hated that she viewed him in such a way.

He flinched involuntarily when Nyssa's hand came up to his face, she paused but kept it coming closer so she could smooth the frown from his brow.

"Don't frown," she said playfully, "you'll get wrinkles."

His face did not lighten, he tried to keep it stoic when she caressed his whiskered cheek with the backs of her fingers, she moved them down across his lips and without thought he kissed them. Her smile almost blinded him and he wanted to do it again just to see that smile, to feel once again the happy flare of life and emotion he got from such a simple gesture.

"What did you dream, Lysander?" she asked quietly, her question was so unexpected that Lysander answered without thinking. He seemed to do that a lot around her.

"I dream of the night my family died."

Nyssa's face dimmed so much that Lysander's chest felt like tight bands had been placed round it and he couldn't stop himself thinking: _please smile again_.

"I'm sorry," she whispered sincerely, sadly. "How did they die?"

"Arcadians came to our settlement and butchered us," he murmured, shaking his head to clear it of memories. "They slaughtered them all, they thought they killed me too. I had just gone through puberty and wasn't strong enough to beat them. When I came round the ground was a puddle of blood, I thought it had rained in the night until I looked over and saw my brother's and father's bodies slumped over one another. They had been dumped in a pile like garbage, chunks ripped from their fur. I never knew why but they took my sisters pelt."

Nyssa winced and felt her stomach roil in disgust, he spoke so matter of factly, yet Nyssa saw that behind his cool façade pain was ripping at him. In an effort to soothe she ran her hand through his hair the way she knew he liked.

"Shh, you don't have to tell me this. I don't want to cause you pain."

Lysander squeezed his eyes shut. Don't, he wanted to command her, don't make me care for you! But it was too late, those words so softly and sincerely spoken made him want her all over again, made him want her in a way that left him feeling disgusted with himself. Was he so weak that a few sweet words and beautiful eyes could bring him to this?

"You don't cause me pain, Nyssa," he said briskly, "you don't cause me to feel anything."

Pain, sharp and raw cut through Nyssa like a blade, how could he be so cruel to her, when all she wanted was to love him? Withdrawing from him Nyssa moved towards the rippling watering hole and began to clean herself of him, she dived into the water and revelled in the feel of its coldness awakening her skin. She dived to the very bottom and held her breath staying under there longer then a human could, this way she could hide her tears.

Lysander wanted to gut himself for that, the hurt in her eyes had been his undoing and when she dove underwater he followed her to the edge and sat there waiting for her to resurface. How could he explain to her that never once in all his life had he experienced what he was with her, it was so new to him it was frightening. How could she know that once his family was destroyed every person he had ever let close to him had betrayed him, until he felt like he had no heart left. Then she happened and that broken, discarded heart had begun to flutter and beat once more, Gods knew he didn't want to hurt her but it was in his nature, he knew nothing of love and kindness, he really was an animal through and through. And for the first time in his life that pained him.

Watching the rippling of the water Lysander let his mind wander back to Kadeem, a Katagaria tiger that Lysander had met when he had been travelling the world in pursuit of his family's killers. Kadeem had been his best friend, they fought together side by side, and to Lysander at least, they were like brothers. Solitary by nature it was a rare thing indeed for a tiger to form such an attachment to another, even of his own kind, that wasn't female. But like all others Kadeem had betrayed him.

In the 17th century when his antics had become so wide spread that even the Katagaria had put prices out on his head in a bid to end the relentless flow of sentinels that Lysander left in his wake and the angry backlash from the Arcadians. Kadeem went back to the borders of Pakistan where his family were settled to see his dying father. He sent a message to Lysander to come to him, like the loyal friend that he had been, Lysander dropped everything, even though he was hot on the tail of one of the Sentinels that killed his family, just to support his friend. It became apparent when Lysander, turning up a day or two early, found Kadeem's father alive and wielding a knife, that he had been set up by his friend. The shock at the betrayal had almost cost Lysander his life, unwilling at first to kill his friend he took a nasty blow through his side that he was sure punctured his lung.

Lysander had managed to escape and was luckily found by the mysterious Acheron, who healed him. He had told Lysander to give up on his revenge or he'd lose everything.

"I've got nothing to lose," Lysander sneered and flashed himself back to the settlement, but not before hearing Acheron mutter -

"You will."

Lysander had gone back to the settlement and razed it to the ground, humans explained it away by saying conflicting bands of rebels had met in the mountain region and massacred each other. What other explanation could there be for such horrific bloodshed?

Lysander narrowed his eyes on the water, he watched the a dark, distorted shape swim below the surface, Nyssa was probably still pissed at him, so it wasn't a good idea to lean in and grab her ankle so she came up spluttering. But he was an animal and urges could never be denied.

"Don't touch me!" Nyssa growled, kicking out at him, Lysander growled ferociously as water got in his eyes. He heard her swim away from him then pad out on to the bank, Lysander rubbed at his eyes that were stinging slightly, he wasn't sure why; but he wasn't angry at her but in truth, he was greatly amused, until a frightened scream rent the air.


	6. Chapter 6

He shook his head, he was still partially blinded by the water when he heard Nyssa crying his name. Rubbing his eyes Lysander snapped his head up with a vicious snarl, what he saw sent a flame of rage whipping through him, he let out a roar of an outraged mate.

Nyssa struggled against the bulging arms of a Katagaria strati leopard in human form, her little head barely seen over his enormous bicep.

"Ah ha! An Arcadian whore all to myself!" he leered, leaning down and inhaling her hair, abruptly he pulled his head back and chuckled darkly. "And where then is your mate?"

"Let her go!"

Nyssa's heart jumped when she saw Lysander standing tall in human form, his breathing a heavy pant while a deep growl seemed to resonate through his chest. The leopard laughed and tightened his grip on Nyssa, who wondered if her face was turning blue yet from the pressure he applied to her neck.

"So tiger, this your mate then?" The leopard inhaled Nyssa again, this time the hand that held a sharp, lethal looking knife moved lower, he shifted his arm so her body was exposed to Lysander's gaze. Nyssa watched Lysander's eyes trail the path of the blade as it moved in a slow, deadly path up her thigh, Nyssa knew that having clothes on would not help in any way should the leopard plunge his knife into her but it would give her some piece of mind, she'd never, in her life, felt so vulnerable before.

"Draw blood from her skin and I will make your death even more painful then it is going to be," Lysander snapped out as Nyssa sucked her stomach in when the cold tip of the blade trailed over it in lazy circles.

"I'll make a deal with you tiger," the Leopard chortled again, "you let me fuck her and I'll kill her for you and you can go free … C'mon what kind of animal wants to be mated to this? I'm sure she's a fine fuck and all but, really, do you want to introduce your clan to a human?"

Nyssa was watching Lysander's face closely, the bastard was actually considering the leopards offer! She couldn't believe it, how could he do this to her? But then she knew, she was Arcadian and he could never, would never see past that one, single fact. Nyssa collected herself mentally, as much as she was able while her mind was in turmoil, she made herself take in her surroundings. She needed a weapon, something she could fight with, perhaps a knife? Her eyes slid to the knife now pressed in between her breasts, she felt sick at the sudden realisation of how fragile her body actually was against the cold steel. Her skin like paper when it came up against a knife or claws. She had never been great at hand to hand combat, unusually for a were, a gun had always been her preferred weapon, a Berretta, perhaps a Glock. Lysander smiled evilly at the leopard.

"You got yourself a deal, leopard."

Nyssa was sure her eyes must have conveyed her betrayal and terror for Lysander suddenly laughed, his own eyes devoid of any emotion, and if it wasn't her eyes then it was her scent, it flared so pungent and intense that both Katagaria growled and the leopard laughed.

"Don't take it too hard, darling," he said maliciously before he threw her from him so she fell before him on the floor, she skidded slightly and her thigh was cut by a jagged rock jutting through the wet earth. "On second thoughts, you'll take it anyway I give it."

He let the sickening innuendo hang in the air while he threw the knife from him, it landed on its point, embedded in the dark soil. On impulse Nyssa scrambled for the knife, it was too far away and when she felt the heavy, suffocating weight of the leopard body on her she turned wild.

Nyssa had never been taught how to control her magic, as a result she could never control when her animal form nor completely change into it. She usually managed a hybrid when she tried, half human half tiger, her skin would become a orange divided by black stripes, her hair too, while her eyes lightened to a beautiful amber colour.

Just when she was sure she would be raped, Nyssa felt the weight be lifted off of her so fast her breathed surged back in to her lungs and made her dizzy. Nyssa curled up immediately into a protective ball, she wasn't sure what was happening around her, only that she was hanging on by a thread. Beatings, she could take them, scorn and insults; there was nothing she hadn't been called or called someone else. But rape, it was a heinous crime that she knew she would never recover from. Nyssa had always had to take care of herself and because of that she made herself believe that she could handle anything, but truth was she was still young. She still wanted to be protected and loved, she wanted her mother and father. But she was used to wanting what she could never have, she thought bitterly and with that Nyssa stealthily crawled towards the opening in the trees, she steadfastly refused to look at Lysander and the leopard fighting, she needed to get away from all of them.

Suddenly the growls and snarls stopped and the only sound other then the background noise of the jungle was heavy panting, there was the sound of footsteps and with a whimper Nyssa curled into a ball once more. She had done so when the Katagaria had invaded her home and killed her parents, she had done so when Rumba and the rest of the animals in Iri'ni had turned on her at one time or another. She couldn't win a fight against a male, so she curled up and prayed, not that there would be no pain; because there was always pain, in everything, but only that she would survive it. The footsteps were loud as the vibrated through the ground under her head, Nyssa tucked her knees into her chest and her arms over her head.

"Its okay, Nyssa," Lysander's voice was deep and gravelly to her ear, still she did not unwind herself, she sensed his hands coming close to touch her and she involuntarily flinched and a sob broke from her chest.

Lysander rubbed his sternum where an ache started. _Don't cry, please, don't cry_, he thought wildly. How badly he wanted to soothe her, she was shaking so much that he was frightened to touch her in case she physically shattered before him. The way she had looked at him when he had pretended to give her over to the leopard, it would be burned into his mind for eternity. Lysander reached out his hand again and gently touched her shoulder, her sharp intake of breath and renewed sobbing had him drawing back as if he had been burned, and on her skin that looked unnaturally pale was a bloodied hand print. Lysander swallowed the bile in his throat.

"Nyssa, I wasn't going to let him hurt you. Okay?" Lysander lowered his face until his cheek was pressed in to the dirt as he watched her, her face was red from crying and her hair clung in a sweaty mop on her forehead. "I just pretended so he would let you go then I could kill him."

Her sobs quietened a little but she continued to shake, he shifted closer to provide her with his body heat and ran his hand over her hair.

"You were very brave, _agapoula mou_," Lysander continued to speak to her, he noticed that when he called her 'my little love' in Greek she calmed a little, for some reason that pleased him. "The way you ran for the knife that way. You fought back -"

Nyssa's head flew up suddenly and she slapped his hand away, her eyes were ablaze with anger.

"The knife was for me, you fool!" she snapped, "not for him!"

"What!"

"What he was going to do to me," Nyssa's throat worked as she combated a wave of nausea. "I couldn't bare it. I'd rather be dead. I saw the way - the way … my mother. When they did that to her. I'm not strong enough to survive it!"

Lysander felt suddenly short of breath, he felt the blood drain from his face and a slight dizziness consumed him. Gods, if she had reached the knife before the leopard had caught her, she would have killed herself. Lysander desired nothing more then to pull her into his arms and crush her to his chest, but he knew it could break her in the state she was in.

"Why didn't you run?" he asked, "you just curled up like you were waiting to die?"

Nyssa gave a bitter laugh, her eyes were brittle and angry, Lysander didn't want to see them like that, never had she turned those eyes on him like that before. Had he done this to her? Gods, he hated himself if he had!

"Why fight when you know you will lose? The only solace I got from what he was going to do was that he was sure to kill me after he raped me!" Lysander flinched as if she had struck him, but Nyssa carried on as if she didn't notice. "I couldn't fight or out run him nor could I do so with you. Rule number one, if someone is going to beat you, your more likely to survive if you protect your vital organs and your head!"

She sounded as if she spoke from experience and that angered him in a way that was indescribable. Who dared to touch his mate! Nyssa stood up finally, her legs shaky, but when he moved to steady her she backed away, her head down and her face averted every time he tried to stoop and meet her eyes. She covered herself the best she could with her hands, while she found the dirty clothes she had stripped off before they made love.

Nyssa pulled them on shakily, she looked like she had trouble moving when she slipped her arms inside the sweater. She hissed as if in pain and Lysander shot to her side only to have her stumble back from him, gods, how he wanted to be angry! When he was angry there was no pain, there was no guilt or shame, no hurt. Why couldn't she make him angry or hateful, damn it she made him feel everything else but that. Lysander stared at her while she dressed slowly and methodically, the water had dried in her hair and without a brush it had tangled into raggedy strands, her face was smeared with mud and so were her clothes, from where he didn't know, but there was also blood stains.

"Your hair is different?" Lysander muttered, cocking his head, didn't human women like compliments on their hair? He had heard that somewhere, right?

Irritation flared in Nyssa, how dare he criticise the way she looked, especially when he wasn't exactly looking his best, with cuts and scars all over him.

"Well, I'm so sorry that it doesn't please you, but unlike some, I'm not used to sleeping outside in all weathers, having to bathe in a pond and having to roll about in the dirt while I try and fend off an attack. I'm sure not even Angelina Jolie would look good after all that!"

Angelina who? Lysander wasn't sure how to respond so he wisely stayed quiet until she calmed, he watched her close her eyes and exhale slowly, then grimace like she was in pain again.

"Are you injured?"

Nyssa ignored him which amused and irritated him. "I want to go back to sanctuary," she muttered not meeting his gaze.

"Why?"

Nyssa looked less then pleased by his questions and Lysander suddenly felt as if they had changed roles, he was asking questions and she was irritated at him.

"Because I want a hot shower, cooked food and someone to mend my arm!"

Lysander was at her side in a second and gingerly touched her arm. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I didn't hear or feel it break but it got hurt when he was on top of me, I fell with my arms trapped under my body. Now its starting to hurt."

"I can fix it for you -"

"No!"

Lysander was so taken aback by her forceful response he almost laughed and he would have done, if not for the fearful look in her eyes. "I don't trust you!"

That hurt, Lysander didn't let it show on his face, but the thought of losing her trust hurt him deeply.

"Ok, but I'd prefer if we went to Dante's place. Inferno is in -"

"No."

Lysander rolled his eyes in exasperation, "why? What's wrong with it?"

"Because," she spoke to him like he was dim and it took all Lysander's self-control to keep his temper in check. "They are all Katagaria and they hate Arcadians as much as you do!"

"They're mostly Katagaria in Sanctuary too!"

"But at least they have a sentinel there!"

"Oh, and you think he'd help you if someone tried to hurt you?" Lysander mocked her, his voice biting, he was angry that she would rather have the protection of the sentinel bear then her mate. "Dream on little girl he wouldn't help you!"

"He'd likely do a lot more then you would!" Nyssa fired back and Lysander roared, it was so strange to hear such an animalistic sound come from a human mouth. Nyssa would have took a step back had fear not held her in place.

"Fine! Go to your precious bears! You'll get no more from me, ever!"

"You haven't given me anything but grief in the first place, I don't expect anything more then that!"

Nyssa felt tears fill her eyes and she was instantly sorry for what she said, she was just tired and hungry and she hated being dirty.

"I'm sorry, I didn't -"

But Lysander had already turned his back on her and was slinking in tiger form back into the jungle.

"Lysander, wait!"

Go to your bears, Nyssa. His tired voice echoed in her mind. I've had enough of this.

But they weren't her bears, she had no family to go to, no one that cared, Lysander was the only person she had a legitimate claim to. Nyssa sniffled while she watched him leave and stared into the trees when he was out of sight, why was she destined to lose everyone? She wondered before flashing herself away.

****

Lysander felt grumpy as he shaded himself under the trees from the glaring sun, five days had passed and no word of Nyssa had reached him. You would think she'd at least wonder if he was okay, Lysander thought sulkily, why hadn't she come back?

When she had first left Lysander had been willing to bet his hide that she would come running after him within the hour, then as the day passed he realised that she was probably a little pissed and was being stubborn but come night fall she would get scared. At night fall he had returned, expecting to see her sitting crying and miserable under her tree, looking dejected and shabby but all the same, utterly adorable. She wasn't.

Lysander couldn't quite believe she had left. _Well, you did tell her to_, he reminded himself, _and when did you ever make it clear that you wanted her around? Do you want her around?_

He didn't know but he could say with all certainty that he was miserable without her, that feeling Nyssa had spoken of, the feeling she had inside her for him, was now in him calling out for her. And what was worse, Lysander had too much time to himself to think. While a part of him tried to celebrate having Nyssa out the way, so he could concentrate on finding the very last sentinel that had taken part in massacring his family, the other larger part, reminded him jealously, that though he may be impotent around everyone but his mate, the same was not necessarily true for her. She could be at Sanctuary right now, talking to the sentinel bear she had noticed, making love to him while Lysander sat by himself, moping. Over the five days Lysander convinced himself that Nyssa was at Sanctuary cavorting with the Arcadian bear, betraying him by giving the bear her body, Lysander roared his anger. Her body, her sweet, curvy body, but what if the bear had her heart also, what if Nyssa no longer felt the pull of the mating call for him anymore and her heart turned to the bear.

The bear of course would feel nothing for her, she would just be an easy lay for him, and Nyssa was too young to understand how sneaky males could be that way. The bear would use her and hurt her heart.

_The way you did?_

Yes, Lysander admitted ashamedly, exactly the way he had.

The thought of one of the curly haired bears sinking their bodies into his mate was killing him, then a thought came unbidden to his mind that caused him to grow cold with panic. What if they hated Arcadians? What if they threw her out of Sanctuary and beat her because she was an Arcadian? He didn't know the bears well, not well at all, he wasn't sure how they responded to Arcadians, especially Arcadians that weren't bears. With the sudden overwhelming feeling that Nyssa was in need of him, Lysander flashed himself fully clothed into human form and then on to the Sanctuary in New Orleans.


	7. Chapter 7

Nyssa moaned as the hot water slid down her back, boy had she missed this. Hot water, clean clothes and a few specialised pain killers from Carson had straightened her out, the water soaked through her hair and she let a silly giggle escape. This was her third shower, the first had been scalding hot to scrub away the nights dirt, blood and seed, the second had been just for good measure and this one was just for the pure sensation of hot water running in rivulets down her spine. Pushing her wet locks back from her face, she thought of Lysander, now she was clean and warm last night/this mornings occurrences didn't seem to matter so much and she had to admit she missed her mate. She promised herself she would go back and renew her fight, not that she had expected it to be this tough, she was actually rather pleased with herself for having stuck it out this long. The thought of having someone to call her own was her driving force, she didn't want to end her life alone and lonely, but by the side of her mate who loved her enough to stay with her if not bond with her.

As soon as she could persuade herself to abandon the steamy bathroom, Nyssa walked into her temporary room and slipped into the clothes Aimee had kindly loaned her. She had been too ashamed to say how badly she was at magic, on the occasions when she did conjure clothes, they were never what she wanted. So she had asked if she could wash the ones she was wearing, the bearswan took pity on her, something Nyssa would not have expected from a Katagaria, but then they were all full of surprises. Take her mate for instance, just when she thought she had him pegged and could judge his moods, he changed and did something to mess with her head. But she would return to him, at least to make things right. She wondered if she was something like a battered wife who repeatedly returned to her abuser until she was killed, Nyssa looked down at her bruised wrist. No, it wasn't like that, if Lysander ever raised a hand to her, she knew some pretty mercenary characters that could take him out and she wouldn't think twice about it. But in truth the man truly had trouble coping with his feelings and didn't know his own strength.

Nyssa brushed out her hair and tied it back in a thick, black braid that smacked her bottom when she moved, she smoothed her hands over her borrowed blouse and sighed. Suddenly from below, a animalistic roar full of rage vibrated through the floorboards and up through the rubber soles of her loaned flats. Nyssa smiled wickedly, she knew that roar.

She laughed softly as she made her way to the door to relieve the bears of her mate, well, well, well, seems she wasn't the only one who was missing someone. And he had come to her, he had yielded and threw away his stubbornness to come to her, Nyssa bit her lip, it would be ungracious to turn him away now. Besides, she desperately wanted to see him, so much so that she had to consciously restrain her legs from running to him.

****

Lysander sneered at the bear he was nose to nose with, they were of equal height and though the bear was a bit heavier then him, Lysander was without doubt that he could take this one down. All he had to do was get him outside Sanctuary, for though he was a rebel by nature, the no biting law of a Limani was one he adhered to.

"Get the fuck out of my way, bear!"

"You got a problem, tiger, you take your striped ass outside and fix it. Laws of the Sanctuary says deal with your issues outta house."

Lysander was about to tell the bear what he could do with his rules when the door behind him opened and Nyssa stepped through it, he was struck dumb by how fresh and gorgeous she looked. He expected anger, coldness but not a smile, not a warm smile that streaked across her face and her hurrying to him, pushing the bear out the way.

"Excuse you," the bear grumbled and made for the door, Nyssa laid her hands on either side of Lysander's lean hips and gazed up at him in adoration, her eyes eating him up.

"Sorry Serre," she muttered vaguely, her gaze transfixed on her mate as if she had not seen him in months. Lysander felt a little giddy himself, insane but true, he positioned his hands lightly on her waist and leant down so he could run his jaw line over her cheek and hair, very much like a cat would. Nyssa purred low in her throat.

"I missed you," she whispered, her lust deepened voice arousing him, so he pulled back, he had to be careful with her, no more bruises, he promised himself whilst looking at her, no more pain. Just a new beginning for them both, he looked down and gently tugged up her injured arm and kissed it.

"Does it still hurt?"

She beamed at him, "no, Carson fixed me."

She moved as if she wanted to step closer though unsure of his reaction, Lysander pulled her into his arms and felt her deep sigh of relief echo his own. It didn't register until she was back with him, but it felt like he had restored something vital to himself, like he'd been missing a limb and it had reappeared suddenly.

Nyssa leant up to nibble his jaw. "I can't believe you came back to me."

"I thought it best to see if you were safe," Lysander muttered and felt Nyssa stiffen, she pulled away gently, muttering a soft 'oh'.

He knew right away what he'd done wrong, what he'd said, she wanted him to pour his heart out, say he missed her, that he couldn't live without her …. The words stuck in his throat, he was ashamed to realise that he still didn't trust her, had a lurking feeling in the back of his mind that should he open his heart to her, she would use it against him. Lysander showed in touch what he could not give in words, he pulled her to a stop when she was about to turn away and studied her side profile, so perfect, so angelic, she was beauty personified. Physically he was attracted to her on every level, it was the emotions he could not handle, he loved that he could possess and arouse her body. But when it came to her heart that she would give him, with no conditions and no restrictions should he just ask, he couldn't believe in it, could not trust it. Lysander wrapped his arms around her slightly resisting body and brushed his lips over her ear, "I'm sorry we quarrelled before, I'm sorry if I hurt you. I didn't mean it."

Nyssa sighed, it was something at least, she could take him apologising as a step forward, a triumph in this relentless battle of the heart and body. Nyssa leaned back against him and lifted his arm so she could inhale his scent while her lips walked up his inner wrist, she heard Lysander suck in his breath sharply then his breath thicken, he wasn't so immune to her. But she was selfish, she yearned for more then his body, but its seemed his body was all he could give. For now, she thought determined to get them back on even ground.

"What do we do now?" Nyssa asked and Lysander had to force the words out of his throat while his brain was mush from having her perfect lips on his skin.

"Well, we get out of here first of all, we'll go to the Inferno."

"Why can't we stay here?" She liked the weather here and the people. Lysander growled when he thought of the Arcadian she'd noticed, hanging about her. They were so not staying here, lest he go back on his oath and break Sanctuary rules.

"Because Dante's Inferno is better," he said shortly and before she could get another word out of her pouting mouth he flashed them both to Minnesota. Outside the Limani, Nyssa gave a small cry as the cold wind blew over her and through the thin blouse she wore. Lysander gritted his teeth against it, he'd forgotten just how much he hated the cold and cursed under his breath when another chilly wind sliced over them.

Teeth chattering Nyssa looked up at the sign and gave a wan smile, "Dante's Inferno, huh? I bet he's interesting."

Jealousy had Lysander's jaw cracking and he turned on her with a sneer, the animal he was could not control something like jealousy.

"Don't take too much notice, darlin'. He's mated."

He said it with as much bite as the wind had and it made her shiver too, she frowned at him and Lysander ignored her but took her by the arm and marched her inside. She was too small to make any real effort to resist but she gave a few imaginative curses. Interesting was he, Dante damn well better be mated, otherwise he'd have to kill him.

Nyssa was seething as she waited by the door and watched Lysander arrange a room in the Limani with a tall, black haired man. What the hell was with him that he changed so abruptly? Just like her to pick a schizophrenic for a mate! She rolled her eyes when he loped back over, his face set and angry looking, just too piss him off she waited until he was near her then smiled sweetly.

"Was that Dante?"

Lysander growled and frogmarched her to their room, it was spacious and well kept, with the basic necessities to get you by.

"That was his brother, Romeo, who is also mated. So your out of luck."

Nyssa blew out an irritated breath and decided to change tactics, she wrapped her arms around his waist and tilted her head to stare at his handsome face.

"Why would I be? I've got you to keep me company."

Lysander still had a simmering rage in him, had he merely been jealous her words and playful manner would have cooled him down and created a whole new fire for him to sate with her. However when he had been speaking to the panther, Romeo had sniffed the air and noted that he was mated. Lysander was private as were most tigers, it was their nature to be solitary and protective of what was theirs. Lysander had shrugged, Romeo inquired where the lucky tigress was, assuming like most would when they looked at Lysander, the fierce Arcadian hater, that his mate would be Katagaria. Shame had filled him, disgusted with himself though he was, he was ashamed to let Romeo believe any differently, he had just grunted. Looking at Nyssa now, she was the source of all his discomfort, she was the easiest person to blame, the other was himself, and he hated doing that. He was selfish and cold, he was stuck with someone he didn't want - _then why_, he thought, _do I feel like shit for denying her?_

"What makes you think I want to be with you?" Lysander answered mockingly, he saw her eyes flicker, but she kept her smile in place.

"Because we're mates and .." she trailed off, leaning up to nip at him, Lysander couldn't take her, wouldn't take her, until he had rid himself of his tangle of emotions. He put her from him firmly, refusing to look at the hurt in her face, he hung his head while his hands still gripped her upper arms. What was wrong with him? He felt like he was losing control of everything, himself and his heart most of all. Because right now it ached and even more so when she spoke.

"Why do you hate me?" she asked in a practiced monotone voice, yet still there was a underlying hurt that was too deep to hide. With a sound that was too much like a sob for both of them, Lysander pulled her to him and crushed his lips on to hers, Nyssa gasped into his mouth then sprinted to catch up with his furious pace. His hands were everywhere, fluttering over her body and moving desperately under her clothes, his lips left hers to skim her face, her cheeks, her eyes, her throat, her shoulders. He flashed their clothes off of them and dragged her, backwards, towards the bed. Laying back on it, Nyssa got a glimpse of Lysander in his pure glory, naked and golden against the cream of the sheets, just before he yanked her across him.

Nyssa was straddling him, with him sitting up beneath her body, his hand swept between her legs and parted the slick folds hidden by ebony curls, Nyssa couldn't bite back the moan.

"I don't understand you," Nyssa said breathlessly, searching his eyes for the answer, Lysander huffed out a mirthless laugh and when he looked at her again his eyes seemed brighter somehow.

"What you make me feel … I can't deal with it. It confuses me and that makes me angry. I hate myself for hurting you, I resented you before and now in the space of what, four days, a week, I can't think if your not around. I'm sorry I'm not easier to deal with, but in truth I don't understand me as much as you, I don't know how to show you how I feel."

Nyssa felt her heart clench, she smoothly tucked his black hair behind his ears before leaning down to kiss the tip of his nose.

"You can show affection in other ways, Lysander," she said softly, to speak loud might break the spell. "Sex isn't the only way."

"I don't know how," he muttered, looking like a small boy admitting he didn't know how to climb a tree or ride a bike.

"Its easy. Just a touch here -" Nyssa run her hand slowly up his torso, his black curls tickling her palm. She was delighted when he closed his eyes with a groan like noise. "A kiss there." She kissed him lightly behind the ear, then at the hollow of his throat.

"I like you very much, Lysander, I want to be your mate. But there's no point in carrying on if all we are to each other is some mindless sex toy. It won't last and we'll end up hating each other. Be honest with me," Lysander flicked his eyes up and saw her face was soft and sincere. "Tell me when your angry at me, or that I've hurt you. And I'll tell you, and things might change."

Lysander traced her cheek with his finger, then spanned his hand around her throat, he was so big while she was so small and delicate. How could she have such faith in him, such wisdom and hope?

"You talk as if you want to be mates with me?" The idea was unfathomable to him, Nyssa smiled and leaned down so their lips were a breath apart.

"I do."

Lysander closed the distance between them and gave himself up to the hungry feeling he kept locked away behind a bolted door. It was a hunger that could not be fed by lust and sex, the body was only part of it, it needed heart and mind and soul to fully sate the feeling, to complete the puzzle and fill a void long been hollow.

Lysander gently rolled with her so she was underneath him, holding himself up on his arms he stared down into those guileless eyes.

"I was angry because I was jealous that you found Dante interesting … That you don't find me so," he blurted out suddenly, he watched emotion darken her eyes and she reached up to cup his face in her hands.

"Silly tiger," she crooned, pulling his head down to kiss him lightly on the lips, "you're the only one that interests me. Don't forget it." She rubbed her nose against his, it was a sweet and endearing gesture that made him blush. He had trouble showing love to her in anyway but sexual, but should a kind word or touch make her smile, why should he deny her? Why should he deny himself the pleasure of it?

Lowering himself on to her, Lysander trailed his hand down her arm to hold her hand in his, it seemed the right thing to do, an instinctive thing to do. Because it was no longer just sex, it was making love, she had been doing so all along, now it was his turn to give it back to her.

"I will make mistakes, Nyssa. And I have a dangerous life, I hunt and I'm hunted. But if you would have me now, still after all that's happened, I'll happily protect you as my mate."

_But love_, Nyssa's mind cried, _what about love?_

Oh, how she yearned to be loved, just once, for one person to tell her she was loved. She wasn't strong enough to survive without it, not when she felt so deeply for him herself.

"I'll have you now, Lysander, I'll belong to you always."

She dared not tell him she loved him, knowing how temperamental he was, it was likely to just upset him, but she felt it there in her heart where only truth can survive.

Lysander felt his heart might give out by the way she looked at him, unable to stand being without her any longer he thrust into her and they both united blissfully on a moan.

"Beautiful Nyssa," Lysander found himself cooing in her ear, he nibbled it gently delighting in her lusty gasp. He moved in her slow and hard, watching every expression that passed over her precious face, her muscles clenched around him making him rear up, his back arch, he bit his lip and closed his eyes.

"Nyssa," his voice came out on a plea, "you make me burn!"

Lysander needed her so badly but he forced himself to go slow, for him to move easy so he would not hurt or bruise her. He might rail against it all he liked but she was precious to him, he had hated that she had claimed a piece of his fabled heart and made it real again. Turned it from a twisted block of unfeeling stone to beating flesh once more, now he cherished her all the more for it.

"Harder."

Lysander heard her quiet moaning plea and fought against the tide of pleasure that wanted him to release, half mad for it he yielded to her demand. Stroking her inside with wild abandon, causing their sweat slick bodies to bump and grind until they burned with unimaginable heat.

"Come for me, Nyssa! Come for me!" He was one step away from turning wild on her yet from her cries he was sure she would relish it. Moments later he felt her tight body grow impossibly tighter, making his eyes cross, and with a scream she released herself, Lysander laughed deep in his throat, so deep it almost came out as a purr and he rolled over so that she was impaled on him.

There was no coherence in her mind when she looked down on him, it was all intense need, her eyes ablaze with lust and awe, her mouth open, she braced her hands on his chest and rode herself into another orgasm. Lysander moved his hand down to stroke her wet cleft, pushing her finally, trembling, over the edge and with a roar he joined her.

Her fragile weight collapsed, spent and sated, on to his chest; he found the strength from god knows where to wrap his arms around her, and Lysander contented himself with stroking his palms up and down her back. Nyssa purred and unbelievably, even after that shattering experience, Lysander felt his body harden once more, his hands began to knead her tight little butt and she gave a tired squirm.

"Baby, I don't know if I can," she raised her head to show him satisfied eyes of a woman well loved, she was beaming at him. "You've broken me. I really don't know if I can to go again."

"You can," Lysander assured her, his fingers now creeping down to test out her secret valleys and hollows, he slipped out from under her body and positioned her on her stomach, lowering his weight on her he heard and felt her breath catch in her throat. He teased her hair line and the nape of her neck with his lips and tongue while his hands sort out her readiness.

"You have to know what your mate can do," he rumbled and Nyssa shivered, laughing she turned her head slightly so her own lips came in contact with his that were nuzzling her cheek.

"I think I have a pretty good idea of what my mates capable of …"

She felt Lysander's ripped stomach move against her back as he laughed, then he fixed his teeth firmly on the nape of his neck and plunged into her once more.

"All night, little Nyssa," he growled in her ear as he thrust into her hot, welcoming sheath, "we'll be going at this all night, love."


	8. Chapter 8

The days flew past and they remained in the safety of Dante's Limani, Lysander had never been happier. Relaxed and content to be in his mates company and only hers, they did not move outside the room, except for food. But since Lysander had found out that he had a rather vicious jealous and possessive streak in him, he normally went hunting up food. At the back of his mind, Lysander knew he should be out hunting, the last sentinel remained alive, he could not live easily with that. Yet every time he made up his mind to resume his search his delicious little mate called him back to bed, or to the shower, or the floor.

And it wasn't just about sex anymore, the physical itch was still there, boy was it still there, all Nyssa had to do was breathe heavy and he was ready for her. But his heart now played a vital role in it to, he was captivated by her, soothed by her and made so completely and inexplicably … happy.

And that was the biggest miracle of all. The tiger, untamed and without tender feelings of any kind, who had not known pleasure since time began, had his emotions taken to rehab and now it seemed, happy was all he could feel.

Lysander groaned with pleasure as he lay on his stomach while Nyssa massaged his back, she rolled her wrists over his shoulders and he arched.

"Feel nice?"

"Fantastic," Lysander mumbled half asleep, it was taking all his will power to stay in human form. Nyssa laughed and paused to pour more scented oils on his back, she liked to watch how the oil shimmered in the candlelight and coated his skin, pooling in the valleys of his muscles and the small of his back. Nyssa bit her lip naughtily as she raked her nails through the oil and scored the cheeks of his firm ass, she heard a half laugh half groan rumble out of him and she leant down and nipped one cheek lightly with her teeth. Lysander pushed himself up on his elbows and looked over his shoulder, Nyssa gave him a cheeky grin that made his groin grow tight.

She looked delectable in a long white mans dress shirt, straddling his waist, her long exotic hair flowing free around her shoulders like a temptress Pocahontas. The candlelight did wonders for her coffee cream skin, playing a gentle mix of light and shadow on her features, that caused Lysander's heart to beat in his throat.

"Kardia," he breathed, it was a Greek endearment that suddenly came to mind: _My heart_. Nyssa blinked with surprise at the depth of emotion she heard in his voice, even though she wasn't positive of what he said. She spoke fluent Hindi but bad Greek.

"What?"

Lysander shook his head and cleared his throat, he smiled back at her then shifted, Nyssa got off his back and let him roll over, she hissed through her teeth at the sight he made laying naked and golden for her eyes to feast on. And her mouth, Nyssa thought leaning down to lightly kiss his lips.

"Where did you learn to work your hands like that?" Lysander asked, trying to dispel three troublesome words from his mind and the tip of his tongue. Nyssa chuckled softly and snuggled down into his welcoming arms, she sighed before she answered, Gods she was happy. When he was gentle and loving like this, when it wasn't the heat of mating passion and lust for her body that drove his hands to touch her but friendship, affection, companionship.

"On Little Dina, a human stumbled across the island once, he stayed in Iri'ni for a while before we wiped his memory and sent him packing. He was a masseur and specialised in aromatherapy, alternative healing and the like. He taught me things."

Nyssa felt Lysander tense, she hid her smile and waited, he hadn't completely got to grips with being honest about his feelings yet.

"Did you - were you and he lovers?" Lysander forced the words from his throat, two instincts warred in his mind, the I-don't-want-to-know and the I-have-to-know, Nyssa turned her face up to him with a smile.

"I was only fourteen at the time and I wasn't his type should he have had the urge."

Lysander didn't know what pissed him off more, the idea that she may have been his lover or the fact that the man thought she wasn't good enough for him, it was twisted logic but he was an animal after all. Logic was for humans. As if sensing his thoughts Nyssa offered an explanation.

"He was gay."

Lysander beamed his approval. "Wonderful man," he murmured because he knew it would make her laugh. He lived to hear her creamy coated laugh.

"He was a good man, he was my friend."

Lysander looked down to see Nyssa staring off into space, there was a very subtle sadness to her face now, as if the memory was painful as much as it were happy. Her face was so expressive, he could read it like it were a book, tucking a curl behind her ear.

"What is it like where you live?"

Nyssa thought about how to answer him, then she realised that the best way, the only way would be the truth. So she told him, she told him everything. Why Rumba had let her stay, how she was his messenger and part time runner between him and the dodgy characters he was involved in. About how she had had to hide during her mating seasons because the males at the Limani tried to corner her. She told him about being hated and alone.

Her calm, almost sleepy voice was worse to Lysander then tears, she, like him, had once been loved by her family and through the mindless, thoughtless hatred of others they had lost that love and had never had it since. It was a miracle she survived at all, with no real magic to help her, no friends or family. How could they have been so cruel to his mate, when she had not a selfish bone in her body? How could he?

"Your so brave," Lysander whispered to her and she looked up, surprised and a little bashful, she shook her head.

"Not really. It was just about surviving, like you taught me."

"I cannot believe that after all you endure at the hands of that jackal, then me being so cold to you, how you can possibly want to be with me."

Nyssa curled closer to him then, she touched his jaw with reverent fingertips, he turned his head until he was facing her, both of them lay on the same pillow, their breath falling lightly on the others face.

"You're the only person I can claim as mine in all the world, you alone have right to my heart and body. You alone are the tiger I will give it to, unconditionally. When you rejected me as your mate, I was afraid, not of the consequences of being unmated but -" She paused and ran her hands over his face, Lysander opened his mouth when her fingertips grazed his lips, it was so innocent and yet so sensually intimate. "I was scared of living my life without you, of being alone. I knew then I would fight you tooth and nail to accept me. I would do all in my power to have you as mine."

She stopped speaking and looked down nervously, her fingers caressing his chest hair. Had she referred to him as hers at the beginning of their relationship, had she claimed ownership of him he would have rejected her even more, it would have driven a wedge between them that could not be bridged. He did not want a human thinking he was some dumb animal to be kept as a pet, but now he knew what she meant, knew how she meant it. She was as much his as he was hers, in her eyes and now in his, they belonged to each other.

Lysander laced his fingers through hers and brought her hand to his mouth, he licked her knuckles gently.

"My beautiful Nyssa, your too small to be so strong," he teased, it was a joke between them now about how petite she was compared to him who was at least six foot and them some. Nyssa beamed up at him, her voice raspy when she spoke.

"I love it when you call me yours," she said, "makes me feel like I belong to you."

"I always had a feeling that you feminists wouldn't like the thought of belonging to a male," he teased again and she kissed his hard muscled Pecs.

"I'm not hardcore."

Lysander chuckled and lifted her head before her sweet lips could distract him, crazy as it sounded, he wasn't after sex just at that moment, The love making he could have at any time, she would never deny him. But it was sweet moments like this, when the heart was at the most open and tender, when the flames of the melted down candles played just right over her skin so it called out a soul deep longing that went past physical fulfilment. They were the moments that were precious and wonderful and oh, so terribly rare.

Lysander played with her fingertips that's rested on his chest above his nipple, so slim were her fingers, so delicate and nimble.

"You have beautiful hands. I feel like they were made to bring pleasure to me."

Nyssa grinned devilishly even though his words turned her inside out. "I have naturally gifted hands, huh?" she giggled and Lysander nodded.

"Natural. Just like your voice."

Lysander loved this part of the night. He had heard her singing to herself when he had come back to the room a day or so before. The room were sound proofed so she had no worry of the panthers over hearing her, but she didn't notice as Lysander slipped through the door, her voice, so strong and powerful belted out a melody that sent chills over his skin. Then she had switched the song as she had walked casually out the bathroom, and begun to sing Sarah McLachlan's 'Angel'. When he did listen to music it was usually heavy metal, but he yearned to hear her crooning old ballads to him in the still midnight hour. Every night, since he had found out she had a voice like a choir of Seraphim, he had coax, pouted and pleaded for her to sing to him.

"Sing to me, my lovely mate?"

Nyssa chuckled before she propped herself up at the headboard and let Lysander put his head in her lap, her hands stroked his hair and temples while her voice began to sing 'Will you still love me tomorrow?' in a slow and rhythmic melody that suited the dramatic atmosphere created by the candle light and scented oils.

****

Lysander opened his eyes and before him was his own paw, it was huge and furry, lethal looking and strong with rough pads and sharp claws. The paw was laying over Nyssa's cheek, as if he had fallen asleep cupping her face, but he hadn't; the last thing he remembered was laying with his head in her lap, she must have put his paw there. The realisation made him feel strange inside, he couldn't quite place the feeling, humbled, accepted, he truly didn't know. But he saw the paw as a direct contrast to everything Nyssa was, he was surprised it didn't suffocate her in her sleep, pulling it away he merely lay and watched her for a long time until a knock on the door had him flashing into human form. He paused before answering the knock to pull the sheet up to Nyssa's shoulder, he swept a hand down her hair, smiling to himself and moved to the door.

Romeo was behind it, he looked grim.

"Panther," Lysander acknowledged with a nod, his face and demeanour adopting an equal graveness.

"Tiger, we just got some information you might want to know about. Our cousin Gabriel just came home and told us that a lone Tigarian sentinel in the area."

"That so?" Lysander said thoughtfully, he was ever in search of the last sentinel in the teressa that destroyed his family. Through the years he had tracked him on stories and rumours, which all said the sentinel travelled alone, Lysander had no love for Arcadians or sentinels but he was not going to go hunt up some pathetic whelp if it wasn't the one he wanted. He may have done before now for sport, but he had Nyssa to think of. Gods, he was completely whipped!

Romeo's sharp eyes shifted from Lysander to over his shoulder, he sniffed and his eyes narrowed.

"I thought you told me your mate was Katagaria, Tiger?" Romeo said, the weight of accusation in his voice and Lysander growled.

"What of it?"

"You reek of human!" Romeo's eyes widened, and he smiled tauntingly, "perhaps that's why you are so reluctant to fight the sentinel. Because your mate is -"

Lysander's hand shot out and caught Romeo about the throat and squeezed.

"Limani," Romeo choked out and Lysander let out a crude curse and let go, Romeo coughed whilst straightening the lapels of his jacket. "I'll let that one go for now tiger, only because you've got a 'mate' -" Romeo let the emphasis fall on that one word and Lysander could feel shame flushing his face, "to protect."

"You piece of shit," Lysander growled but Romeo laughed.

"No good threatening me, tiger. No good blaming me. Damn, the mighty Lysander Stephanos mated to an Arcadian," Romeo clucked his tongue. "I don't think I've ever seen a worse mix. Does she know how you feel about her people?"

"Mind your own fucking business, panther. I deal with my problems my own way."

Romeo cocked his head then, there was something in his eyes, in the way he looked at him that Lysander wasn't comfortable with.

"What the fuck are you looking at?"

"Nothing," he said his voice gently musing now. "I was just pissed that we had an Arcadian here without knowing it. I'm not usually that much of an asshole. But you are a real one. I'll leave you and your problem to talk it out."

Lysander slammed the door in Romeo's face, forgetting that Nyssa was asleep behind him, when he turned however she was awake, sitting up in bed, her hands fisted in the sheets. Her eyes were filled with tears. Lysander was about to ask her what was wrong when he looked to the door and then back at Nyssa, she had heard everything.

"Nyssa -" he began but she held up a hand and it took only that to silence him, he clenched and unclenched his hands, wanting so badly to go to her. She got out of bed, still in the crumpled white shirt from the night before.

"Is that what I am to you now?" she said, her voice frigid and calm, she surprised herself how calm she was considering her temper was inches from boiling over. "Your problem?"

Lysander didn't know what to say but that was fine since Nyssa didn't want an answer anyway, she wanted to beat him with a bat.

"Nyssa, its not the way it sounded," Lysander began but she cut him off by yelling at him, he couldn't remember her doing so before.

"It was exactly how it sounded! Gods, I am so stupid. I do this all the time, I should have taken the hint when freaked out on me in the jungle!" Her head was in her hands as she rambled on to herself, Lysander moved to take her in his arms and try to kiss away the hurt, smooth it away with lovely kind words, but she jerked out of his reach, hissing and clawing at him like a wild cat.

"You know, I can take being hated, and disliked and ignored and I can even take rejection," she was breathing heavily, and tears that had been held in her lashes leaked down her face. "But what I can't take, what I will not stand for is you being ashamed of me for what I am." The words cut Lysander through like a knife.

"I am not some mindless doll, with no feelings. I didn't ask to be your mate no more then you did to be mine, I tried my hardest to make the best out of something that looked doomed. You didn't even want to try, all you did was hurt and push me away. Then you suddenly turn into this wonderful knight in shining armour type and I think that maybe, just maybe, we could be together. You treated me like I mattered to you and that you cared -"

"I do care for you," Lysander cried earnestly, panic threatening to choke him.

"Is this the way you show it? You pretend that everything's fine until someone finds out I'm Arcadian. Do you expect me to live with you, building it around some lie. Because this whole thing between us is a lie, you are a lie. I thought animals were honest, but you're the biggest liar of them all! Gods, how could I believed I ever saw anything in you? You think I'm nothing because I'm human but I think you are nothing because you lied, and that makes me a million times better then you. Because had someone asked me who I was mated to I would have been proud to say your name."

"Nyssa, please," Lysander was aware that his palms had started to sweat and sick fear of what she would do next was pumping through him. "We can work this out. What can I do to make you see that I care about you?"

"Don't give me that! I thought I was less then you were because I couldn't control my magic but your even lower then I am!"

She was right, he was low, the lowest, he hated himself so much. "What can I do to make this right?" Lysander said, edging towards her, he needed to touch her, now while he felt like falling apart. She had the power to make or break him.

"Nothing, you can do could make this right. I never asked you for anything," she was sobbing despairingly now and Lysander felt his own throat tighten in response. "I never asked you to love me, or care for me, I never asked you for anything …" She gasped to catch her breath and Lysander couldn't bare the pain she was in, the way her arms were wrapped round herself, one hand clutching at her heart.

"I know, baby, I know. I'm not ashamed of you Nyssa, I just …" Lysander trailed off on a sigh, he lifted his hands and let them drop uselessly at his sides. "What can I do to make this right?" He repeated.

"What's the point," her voice had quietened to a whisper, she gave a slightly bitter trembling smile. "I'm not exactly loveable, am I? You wouldn't have been able to hide that fact from yourself in a few years time."

Not lovable? She was the most perfect, lovable creature there was! And he did love her, so deeply that he knew there would never be another so long as he lived. She was his first and she would be his only.

"I'm your mate, Nyssa. There must be something I can do, something that will mean enough so we can start again."

Nyssa went silent, she stared at him solemnly. "Give up your revenge."

Lysander didn't have to ask her to repeat that, he had heard perfectly and it made him go cold.

"I can't do that, Nyssa."

"Yes, you can."

"No, Nyssa, I can't. I will not give up hunting for the bastard that killed my family for anyone. Not even you."

"That's my request, you give up your revenge, and we try and make this work without your hate for my people getting in the way of things. If you give up your revenge then you've got no reason to be ashamed of being mated to an Arcadian. Because that is exactly why you hated it to begin with, that's why its shames you so now. You think its weak and wrong to be with me when my race murdered your family. Well, newsflash! Your people slaughtered my family. They raped my mother and then butchered her along with my father and brother. Your revenge has consumed you, until its all that you are, all you've become. That's my offer, Lysander, give it up and we'll see where we get to."

How could she ask that of him? Lysander thought, he let his gaze move over her, she was so beautiful to him, even with her eyes puffy and red, she was still all he wanted.

"I can't do it," he said finally, after a taut pause.

"Yes, you can," she felt like she was almost pleading with him.

"No, I won't, I can't!"

"Yes you -"

"Don't push me on this, Arcadian!"

The words slipped out before he could censor them and he saw immediately he had hammered the last nail into the coffin, she gave a defeated type of shrug.

"You'll never be able to see past that one, will you?" she said softly before moving towards the bathroom, Lysander made to move towards her and grip her hand but she evaded his touch and closed the bathroom door, he heard the definite click of the lock. Locks wouldn't hold him out if he really wanted to get in there, but right now he felt so bad, so low, so completely ashamed of _himself_, that he didn't think he could find the strength to break the door down if he tried.

Lysander moved to the bathroom and was about to knock on it when he heard her muffled sobs, he imagined her curled up, the way she did when she felt threatened, on the floor. The way she had looked at him when he had called her Arcadian, he had caused so much damage to her, he wasn't sure that it was completely wrong if they did separate for good.

He clenched his fist and backed away from the door, why did it hurt so much? He'd had beatings that didn't even get him to curse aloud, yet now this pain made him want to scream, to sob. He wanted to be able to throw pride into the winds and get on his knees and beg and grovel, a part of him admitted that if it would have worked he probably would have done so, but he had made a terrible error that sorry could not fix.

"I love you."

Lysander muttered under his breath, not taking his eyes from the door, then with a curse he flashed out of the house in search of the Arcadian.


	9. Chapter 9

Lysander tracked the Arcadian to his precise location, the sentinel wasn't The One, he was a cub. Sitting in one of the comfy chairs in front of a star bucks window in New York, he sipped his coffee while walking a coin across the backs of his fingers, he looked bored, tired, perhaps a little depressed but the kid didn't look lethal. A long time ago that fact would not have mattered to Lysander, he would have waited until the guy came from the shop, would have followed him to a dark alley way and let the kid catch his scent on the breeze, so he would turn and find himself face to face with a full grown Katagaria tiger. And that would have been his end, he would have died tonight had it not been for Nyssa. The memory of her pain filled eyes was burning at him, it clotted up his chest until he felt he couldn't rightly breathe. Rain that had been nothing more then a light drizzle thundered down and Lysander had no more wish to move out of it and seek shelter then he did to be there.

Time flew by without a backward glance and the coffee shop cleared, the tables were being cleaned, the chairs stacked, the lights dimmed and it was only when the waitress locking up asked him to leave did the sentinel move. He turned up his collar and stepped out into the still pounding rain. Immediately his eyes meet Lysander's and through the beat of rain and whoosh of traffic and wind, he heard the Arcadian choke out a bitter laugh that sounded more like a sob. He raised his arms and looked heavenwards.

"Could you have bestowed upon me a more blessed gift, O wise Moirae!"

Lysander arched a brow and felt his body tense in preparation for a fight but the sentinel seemed indifferent. He strolled towards Lysander, not minding the cars narrowly missing his body, when he was a few feet before him the sentinel again opened his arms wide.

"Do it, Slayer!" he pleaded, "do what you came for!"

"What's wrong with you?" Lysander muttered incredulously, now reading signs of insanity in the distraught grey eyes of the human.

"Everything!" the sentinel howled, he was laughing, and Lysander suspected crying with the rain, "you've cornered me, Slayer. Kill me now!"

Lysander grumbled and was about to turn his back when the sentinel flashed himself in front of him, Lysander gaped.

"Are you fucking crazy!" he hissed, "the humans will see you!"

"No!" the sentinel barked back, an insane smile breaking over his face. "No, they won't. Because they don't like to see beyond their own lives, they do not like to see what they can't understand. Like me I can't see things, and sometimes I can!"

Lysander pushed past the kid but to his shock the Arcadian jumped on his back as if Lysander were giving him a piggy back, Lysander turned with a ferocious snarl his hand raised, his claws out. He stopped in mid swipe when he realised that the Arcadian was waiting serenely, with his eyes closed.

"I don't understand you," Lysander mused aloud and the Arcadian laughed again, that bitter choking laugh that was bordering weeping.

"How could you possibly understand, Slayer? When I don't either. I don't understand how one day a mark can appear on my hand," Lysander's head whipped up to stare intently at the Arcadian whose features were ravished with grief. "It was the first time and I was mated. I loved her more then anything and then the Teressa took her. And while I was out hunting my mark just disappeared and it won't come back."

The Arcadian rubbed and scratched furiously at his palm, Lysander winced as pain for the man sliced his chest, the only way for a mark to disappear meant the death of your mate.

"I tried to track her, but I can't find her. My nose is wrong, Slayer, imagine that?" He laughed crazily, "Its wrong because I keep tracking her scent back to the same place, the same, same, same place. And I can't find her, she's hiding from me because the smell is so strong."

He broke down then, he threw back his head and let out a roar, his human throat worked, its tendons straining as it produced a noise that made the human women across the street shriek. Lysander couldn't feel anything but pity for the man before him, the death of his mate had driven him mad, Lysander could imagine him prowling in a circle around the place where his mate's scent was strongest. Where she had last been, where she met her death, they had probably left no trace of her. Lysander was about to lift his hand and lay it upon the man's shoulder, it would have been the first time he'd voluntarily touched a sentinel. The man jerked back and drew a gun from inside his pocket, Lysander eyed it warily, not out of fear for himself …

Were-Hunters may be able to take more pain and injury then an average human but mortal wounds were still enough to kill them outright. The man didn't say another word but swiftly drew the gun up to his heart, his eyes locked with Lysander's.

"No, don -"

"It stops the pain."

He pulled the trigger. The lead bullet rattled through its chamber, through the cold flesh, the muscle, tissue, nerves. It broke through the walls of the heart, severing arteries and causing blood to spill, lungs to flood, no oxygen got to the brain. Yet the Arcadian sentinel, who lay amidst a pool of his own blood that was made into a pink river by the tumbling gush of rain, died with a smile on his face

In his loose fist was the coin he had been rolling over his fingers, Lysander picked it up, it was slightly bloody and slippery with the rain too. On one side a tiger roaring was intricately engraved, on the other a human man, on the tiger side a woman's name was engraved under it: Kadejah.

Under the human was the name, Raoul. And above it, on both sides, the inscription written in ancient Greek: we are one. He'd been mated to a Katagaria.

Lysander closed his fist tight around the coin and closed his eyes against a sudden vision of himself in Raoul's place, Nyssa gone from the world and him left to live when there was nothing to live for. The sudden onslaught of Arcadian scent made Lysander aware he was standing before a dead body, raising his eyes to scan through the tendrils of his soaking hair, Lysander saw that in front of his and Raoul a loose semi-circle was made. A woman with blond hair and similar features to Raoul let out a scream and threw herself beside Raoul and began rocking him in her arms, the grime from the street made her white robe gleam against it.

"Raoul! My Filos, My brother!"

A man with a tired, haggard face turned his eyes up to meet Lysander's, they were the only thing that were alive in the fading body. A burning pool of emerald hate, they shone like neon lights; it was those eyes that made Lysander feel, more then his words.

"So, brave and immortal slayer," the man said mockingly, he began to circle his prey. Stupid tiger, Lysander thought as he stayed motionless, waiting patiently for when to strike the tiger down.

"You slay a cub. Does that make you proud? Do you put another victory on your belt, slaying a defenceless, grief-stricken cub!"

"I never touched your boy," Lysander said in calm, low tones. As a testament to how passive he was to the whole situation, he wasn't even growling; all he wanted to do was go back to his mate, in reflex he tensed for the fight. He was not a coward and his epiphany had not gone so far as to make him walk away from a fight, but should one come knocking on the door, he would regret having to answer it.

The blond woman rose to her feet with the grace and dignity of a queen, her face livid, she raked Lysander with a sneer.

"Kill it, Brutus," she spat, "make him suffer how Raoul suffered! Make him suffer as I suffer."

"Could I heal your pain, female, I would," Lysander stared into her eyes. "No more need to die this day, but should you try and fight me, you will lose. Make no mistake."

She smiled grimly. "I want you dead, Tigerian, I did not say anything about fighting you."

The man, Brutus, shouted for her to stop, his eyes bulging with anger, but from under her robe her quick and delicate hand pulled forth a phaser and she shot it at Lysander. The volts of electricity knocked him off his feet, into the air and then hard against a brick wall, the wall flaked and crumbled. The pain that blasted through his body was terrible and so unfamiliar, never had he been attacked by a phaser before. From the rapid and frenzied flickering of forms, Lysander would have placed a bet that she had set the thing for kill, and no doubt should he not get out of here it would.

The blond woman stepped forward with the phaser raised, again ready to deliver a fatal, painful blow, the man grabbed her wrist and she winced, dimly, beyond the pain and thoughts of Nyssa Lysander heard the male speak.

"No, Cara, no! What's wrong with you? Why would you use this?"

"To kill, you fool! I want him dead!" She screamed back into the Brutus's face.

"And you would debase yourself and your reputation for this? Your honour in exchange for your revenge? Kill him fair, in the way of a noble human not a worthless, spineless animal!"

The woman's face was almost as white as her robe, her knuckles were white, her nostrils too, they flared as she panted through them.

"Take him then. If he dies he dies. If he lives, it is only to be gutted."

Brutus winced and held up his dagger, perhaps to indicate he wanted a fight to the death loser dies, winner leaves.

"You have chosen his death for him, that's how it stands now, Brutus, it is the law of the land. I'll have my revenge no other way."

Brutus nodded. They turned to stare at the tiger flickering to a naked man and back to a tiger, Brutus barely held back from cringing, thinking of the pain. Lysander however was not thinking of the pain, one would not believe it but it was possible even in the midst of total gut wrenching, physical agony to think past the pain. He thought of Nyssa, and knowing with dead certainty that he would not make it to being gutted, that he wished he could have made love to her one final time. Could have told her that he loved her just once and tell her that she was the only thing that had ever and would ever matter to him. If only he could hear her sing to him.

But all the wishing in the world would not change his fate, he would die and it would not be in the arms of the woman he loved but at the unmerciful hands of people that hated him. And it was a sick type of irony, that after all he had done and crimes he had committed in his life, it would be ended over something he did not commit. Strange is life. Oh, Nyssa …..

****

_Pain_, Nyssa wrote in her diary, _is something we all live with, I have lived with it many years. Not only with the memory of it but with tangible pain, when we are in pain we are not whole. I am not whole. There are those who thrive on pain, such as my both beloved and hated mate. Lysander is a wanderer of the earth, he is too stubborn, too strong and too proud to give into the pain that threatens to weaken him. Instead he channels that pain, such intense suffering, he fills the empty void with it, and rather than letting the pain eat at him, he subverts the process. Miraculously he eats the pain, he uses it as a sustenance to survive and becomes all the more stronger for it. A diet of thorns and nettles, of bitter herbs and sour grapes, someone would need an iron stomach … an iron heart. _

_Yet such a diet is still poison and that poison, though tasting good to him, will still kill him, it will rot him from the inside out. Yet he will die thinking that he lived strong and happy, he will die content thinking he was fulfilled and he did not live or die in vain. At least he will be happy, I suppose. Perhaps I am wrong then in calling it a poison, its an hallucinogen, a drug - an escape. Perhaps its not so bad?_

_I am not Lysander. My diet needs more then sour poison and blandness. I no longer want to survive, I want to live; but it is a physiological fact that you cannot live without your heart. I have also made that a psychological fact now, oh joy for me. I cannot live knowing that the man I love will forever be ashamed of me, nor can I live a life without him in it. I'm only 191 and yet I am so weary, so utterly tired of being alone. Some can survive it and some cannot, like I said before surviving isn't enough anymore, I despise myself for the choice but now my mind is made up I feel there is no alternative. _

_I went back to Little Dina, to be honest I always knew Rumba would be murdered rather then die warm in his bed, though in truth he probably deserved his fate. Still I did pray for him, he hated me, scorned me and punished me but he still gave me a home. Though I blackmailed him into it and through his weakness he could not see that killing me would have been a better course of action, he still gave me that which I could not live without._

_Liko is not so weak or so tolerant of me. Savitar revoked the Iri'ni's license to be a Limani, which Liko wasn't so upset about, you can imagine the animals that lived there were pissed. He sent me packing of course and I barely got away without being attacked, the scratches down my back are a killer though. So where do I go? For someone who has lived most of her life calling home a place where the people there would like nothing more then to see her miserable and fry her in the underworld, it's a perplexing question. _

_I am without home now, I am as I have always been without friends or family, I am without money; not a true necessity of my life but still good to have. I could always plead a room at Sanctuary or even the Inferno, though the Serengeti would be a better option, they are Arcadian at least. But I don't want to._

_I am without my mate and I don't want a life without my mate. I suppose some would call me a coward, but one hundred and ninety one years of loneliness and being hated wears you down, right down to your very marrow. Still I could have carried on, had I not met Lysander and it was brought to my attention how truly pathetic I am, I would have been able to ramble through my life, surviving like I always do, existing._

_I love him so much. I just don't like being alone anymore._

Nyssa laid down the pen, it had not taken long to write in her entry but the furious scribbling crippled her hand. She gave a wry smile as she shut the book, and run her hand over the unspoiled, dark gold material cover, she had bought new before she had arrived in New Orleans to see Papa bear. It amused her that the first page of her new diary was something of a suicide note - no she would not think that - it was simply a lasting reminder that she had once been here, on earth. That though she had mattered really to nobody, she was somebody. Suicide notes she felt were made for guilt, she felt no guilt and wanted Lysander to feel none, though if she were brutally honest, he was unlikely to know until his mark disappeared. He would come looking, she presumed, out of curiosity but not because he cared. The truth did not set you free, Nyssa rubbed her sternum, it made you ache so badly that all you wanted to do was shrivel up and be lost in a dark, unfeeling corner.

Nyssa stood up when there was a tap on the hotel room door, she was in a new white hotel robe, her hair and body freshly clean and scrubbed and brushed. It was a strange preparation to do before she did the thing she did not want to think about. The room service brought in the trolley and stopped it next to the table, she tipped him with what money she had left and he exited the room with a kind smile. Was it kind or was it because it was perhaps the last one she would see she wished for it to be kind. That what he bestowed upon her was really a priceless gift, a gesture of simple, untarnished friendliness. A smile.

The food on the plate smelt delicious and she removed the silver tops one by one to reveal scrumptious looking delights, brownies and double chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate cake with chocolate custard, toast with chocolate spread on them. Strawberries with melted chocolate running from a fountain, Nyssa arched her brow, if the thing tasted as good as it smelled then this was a fine way to croak. If she was going to die by poison, she wasn't going for a dramatic effect but it was neat and un-messy and well, painless really, she did not want the transition into peace to be painful, she'd had enough of pain.

Chocolate for Weres was a killer, a poison in their blood, what was said by human women to be better then sex was deadly to her kind, both Arcadian and Katagaria. Unlike humans its did not just stimulate their endorphins but it mutated them, if consumed over a vast period of time the mutated endorphins would cause the brain to shut down the organs one by one. As Nyssa planned to go the whole way with hers and do a big binge it would merely overload and act as a sleeping drug, a tasty, warming sleeping drug.

Nyssa sat staring at the flow of sweet-smelling brown liquid from the fountain, she rolled up her bathrobe sleeves and stretched her forefinger towards the streaming chocolate. It coated her fingertip in warmth, Nyssa almost laughed. Suddenly a fissure went down her spine that had her sitting bolt up right in her chair, staring around her.

Lysander. He was in trouble!

Nyssa stared at the chocolate waiting innocently at the tip of her finger and she sighed, wiping it delicately on a napkin she got up and began the hurried process of dressing.


	10. Chapter 10

Lysander felt like every inch of his body had been beaten with a baseball bat covered in nails, under his aching side was a hard, cold concrete floor. If he were in human form he would have likely had made a noise on waking that would have alerted the Arcadians of his consciousness. As it was Lysander merely cracked open his eyes, which was hard as they were clotted shut by blood clogged fur, and stared through the iron bars of his cage at the camp around him.

It was apparent that these tigers were not like him, they were Siberian, which explained their affinity with such a cold climate; not many tigers Lysander knew could stand the cold.

Lysander watched through slitted eyes whist the camp moved with a sluggish, subdued pace that only came when night drew in; when babies were hushed and rocked to sleep and men talked in whispers to their wives before drawing them into their tents to make love before morning.

These nomadic bands of tigers were quite strange.

A dark movement to his right had Lysander shifting his head to see Brutus standing, forlorn and alone by his cage. Brutus gripped the bars of the cage and stared into the groove that he'd made in the dirt with the toe of his boot. He looked lost and bedraggled, rather like he had drained of colour; with a small pang Lysander remembered the young were that died, it accounted for the sombre mood crowding the camp.

Lysander took a deep breath and wrenched his eyes open wide, staring determinedly at Brutus. Brutus's sagging shoulders stiffened as if he felt Lysander's gaze and he turned his head slowly to see Lysander staring at him. For the second time in his life Lysander put his faith wholly in an Arcadian, but Brutus wasn't Nyssa and this time it could be fatal.

"I would close my eyes were I in your position, slayer. And try to die," he whispered barely moving his lips, keeping his eyes on the dirt.

_You know I'm not a slayer, otherwise you would have let your female at me already._

Brutus closed his eyes as if pained and exhaled quietly. "She should not have done that. It was unworthy and dishonourable. She is … bereaved."

_So am I. For the deaths of my family at the hands of your sentinels._

Lysander shifted and barely contained a growl of pain.

_You're a fair man, Brutus. I have no love for Arcadians but I see your honour, I see how it has been compromised. _

Brutus's face hardened. "Oh, you see that, do you? I am not so honourable, Katagaria, nor am I so brave. I'll not reach my hand out to open your cage; you'll die in here all because I have not the courage to defy my family."

The self-disgust in Brutus's voice was evident and his words came out in a growl that drew the attention of some of the tiger males near by. Lysander did not know what to say to Brutus to ease or persuade him, and once again that sense of resignation, that this was the end came over Lysander. But rather then expectation, there was sadness in his heart, Nyssa, how he wished he'd been able to see her one last time.

"I'm sorry, slayer," Brutus said and moved away, Lysander watched him walk away with a strange feeling in his chest. There was no vicious hate or animosity towards the Arcadian, he had been changed for all time by a woman, a small, petite woman that had no idea what she meant to him. The lengths he would go to, to keep her safe. Lysander rolled over so he was facing away from the camp, the dying light of fires making the trees dance.

_Acheron, I need you._

Lysander waited, his breathing and heart beat stopping until he heard the rich, magnetic voice of the mysterious Atlantean.

_Lysander, what can I do for you?_

Lysander rolled his eyes. _You were never one for small talk, Ash, I liked it about you. Don't change it now._

He heard Ash's deep laugh then a pause. _Don't worry, tiger, I'll look after her for you. _

_Thank you_

_Just …_

_What?_

_Don't give up too quickly. You never know what's just beyond the trees._

Lysander huffed out a laugh that turned into a moan of pain and he broke the connection with the ancient, his thoughts turned immediately to Nyssa.

**************************************

Nyssa inched forward in human form on all fours, the ground beneath her knees and palms was hard and cold, and the unforgiving wind blew up her spine through her thin shirt.

"The things you do for love," she muttered harshly, tucking herself behind a tree and spied through the shadows and branches. Against her will her throat tightened and her eyes welled at seeing Lysander, he wasn't moving, in fact save for the faint movement of his stomach rising and falling she would have thought him dead. His fur was terribly matted with blood and dirt, he looked terrible, as he twitched his furry face in pain, Nyssa's heart stuttered.

Moving forward a quarter inch, not entirely sure what she was going to do, only certain she was going to get him the hell out of that cage. All of a sudden an upsurge of noise and shouting had Nyssa almost jumping out of her skin, she would have jumped out of her hiding place had a hand not clamped on the nape of her next and kept her to the floor.

"Keep down," a male voice growled in her ear, and her fear blossomed in the air, Nyssa wiggled trying to test if she could break free. His grip was like iron.

"Who - who are you?"

"Just call me back-up."

Relief almost made her dizzy. "Oh, Jesus!"

The voice deepened with amusement, and had she not feared for her life and that of her mate she would have thought it terribly sexy. "Not quite that holy, but whatever you want."

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because."

Nyssa was about to prompt him into speaking but a clash of noises too near for Nyssa's liking caused her heart to obstruct her throat. The hand at her nape began to tug on her, Nyssa realised that he was trying to move her backwards, away from Lysander.

"No!" She hissed, writhing in his grip.

"Look, I want to go home to my wife, can you just let me get you out of here?"

Nyssa became motionless. "If that were your wife in that cage, could you leave?"

The person behind her let out an irritated and his grip loosened, Nyssa did not look behind her but began to crawl forward. Distinctly aware that there was a pungent smell of burning fur and blood would intensify once she broke through the barrier of undergrowth, Nyssa whispered, "thank you." She pushed her way through to the back of the cage.

Lysander opened his eyes immediately, his nostrils flaring, distinguishing her scent through the layers of smoke and dirt and blood.

_How did you get here?_

Nyssa gave a rather exasperated snarl that Lysander would have found cute had the situation not been so dire.

_Get out of here! Now!_

"No."

_Do as I say, Nyssa!_

"Oh, like you're in a position to dictate to me. Now shut up, while I think."

Nyssa examined the bars on the cage and could find no way to get them loose; she looked around for something to help her, if only she could control her powers.

_You can't help me, Nyssa! Leave before they see you!_

Nyssa growled in frustration and was about to crawl backwards to see if her faceless friend was still there and might help her, when hands caught her roughly under the arms and hauled her from her hiding place. Nyssa let out a scream and Lysander lifted his head as far as he was able from the floor and roared ferociously, he swiped at the bars with his claws; it didn't make much of an impact since his body was still weak from taking two shots with the _phaser_.

Nyssa twisted her neck to see who had hold of her, a burly, young Arcadian had her clamped against his chest; he chuckled and Nyssa felt his pecs move against her shoulder blades.

"Well, well," he breathed in her ear, before lifting his head and shouting out. "Cara, Brutus, look what I've found for myself in the bushes!"

At this Lysander was driven into a frenzy, despite his weakness, he was able to get on his feet and pace the cage, his lips pulling back revealing his fangs, his ears flattened down. Cara moved forward, her hard face shifted slightly and Nyssa realised she was smiling coldly at her.

"She is the tigers play thing," Cara laughed coldly, Brutus came forward and leaned down to Nyssa's face, he sniffed once, twice, raised his head.

"She is Arcadian, Cara."

"She is his," Cara said with an indifferent shrug of the shoulders, Nyssa watched the woman's impassive face take on a look of pure malice and she flicked her gaze between Nyssa and Lysander, who growled at her. "Who should we make watch?"

Many of the tigers now surrounded Cara, Brutus and the man holding Nyssa, they sensibly kept distance from the cage, as Lysander was now swiping his paw through the bars in a futile attempt at clawing the lock open.

"Should we make the animal watch his whore die, or should we make the whore watch the animal die?"

The man holding Nyssa gave a low laugh and tightened his hold. "Make her watch him die. Then after she can be my play thing." He leaned down and nuzzled Nyssa's ear, she felt her stomach churn and the roar that erupted from Lysander was the loudest and most violent yet.

Cara laughed, so did the man holding Nyssa and some of the crowd, but most edged away from the cage.

"I'm going to fuck your woman, Slayer -"

"Detrix!" Brutus reprimanded, he tried to tug Nyssa from the man's arms, but Detrix clamped them so tight that Nyssa gasped for breath.

Brutus turned appealingly to Cara, "the tiger does not deserve this, and neither does his mate. Let them go."

Cara curled a lip and spat in Brutus's face, there was a moment of strained silence where only the wind and every tigers own heart beat could be heard. Brutus wiped his face delicately; there was a beat then with a roar he pounced, shifting as he did in to his tiger form. Taking Cara down with him. Detrix hastily dragged Nyssa back from the fighting, laughing uproariously as he did so, while the other tigers surrounding the fighting pair Detrix took a moment to fondle Nyssa's breasts; her stomach heaved.

"Your heat is beating very fast, little girl," he purred his hot breath into her ear and made her skin crawl. Nyssa struggled with all her might; Detrix restrained her easily, shooting a leering smile over to Lysander.

Boiling rage fuelled Lysander's strength; Lysander threw his body at the bars and almost knocked himself unconscious. Detrix laughed harder and dragged Nyssa to the cage; he moved her hand to his crotch where he pushed it caused him to rub lewdly up against it.

Lysander went out of his mind, doing more damage to himself then to the bars, Nyssa cried out for him to stop but all he could hear was his own blood pounding in his ear. Nyssa's small, fearful face was all he could see through the thick red that obscured his vision. Suddenly Detrix doubled over in pain and Nyssa turned on him, sinking her human teeth into his neck. Lysander felt the darkness closing in around him, he fought it. He had to stay awake, for Nyssa's sake he had to stay with her.

A bolt had been thrown back in Nyssa, the untamed part of her soul spilled out, letting the tigress have supremacy. For once true harmony reigned within her and the rush was astounding. She felt her body contort until the sleek, agile body of a fully fledged tigress raised her bloody muzzle and narrowed her eyes upon the fight between Cara and Brutus. A noise behind her had Nyssa spinning around and snarling. It was only the lock on Lysander's cage unlocking and the cage door falling open. The crash would have made an unholy amount of noise but for the roars of the battle, Lysander had passed out again and was bleeding profusely from wounds in his shoulder and side, some were fresh and some reopened by his efforts to aid her.

"Come on now, little tiger lady," the deep magnetic voice came again and Nyssa looked over at an unbelievably tall man, handsome as sin with swirling silver eyes. He gave her a cocky yet kindly grin that only added to his allure, whilst gesturing her to approach him. Nyssa walked defiantly to Lysander and sat beside him, nudging him with her nose, he didn't stir but the man laughed.

"Yeah, he'll come too. We better hurry though, unless you want your friends over there to catch us."

In her animal form Nyssa smiled at the man and settled down beside Lysander, ready to be flashed to safety.


	11. Chapter 11

Being hit by a _phaser _wasn't something you could just recover from, in fact being hit by a _phaser _twice while it was on full power was designed to take you out. Period. So it was a testament to Lysander's powers and pure stubbornness that he was alive. He was currently unconscious in the 'patients' room' at the back of Carson's office in the Sanctuary of New Orleans. The tiger had become somewhat of an attraction for the Weres, who had never known anyone to survive an attack like that before.

During one of his bouts of consciousness Lysander remembered waking up, his head killing him, seeing Nyssa watching over him. He smiled stupidly at her and raised his hand to her face - well, he would have. But all motor functions seemed to have gone out of the window - so he settled for just smiling.

_I knew you would come._

Then he knew no more of the world. Unfortunately Nyssa did.

"Damn, two shots with a phaser and the tiger is still ticking!" Kyle Peltier whispered with horrified awe as he stared through the open doorway at the couple. Nyssa had not left Lysander's bedside since they had came there three days ago, he had woken up a few times and each had seemed drunkenly happy to see her.

"The guy is a monster," came Justin's equally horrified voice. "I mean what kind of animal survives that. It's not right."

"Either that or he's been blessed by the Gods."

"With he's rep!" said Remi Peltier's voice indignantly, "no way! The guy's a fucking psycho. If the God's have blessed him then the altitude poisoning has finally gotten to everyone on Olympus."

"Yeah, Remi's right. Everyone wants that tiger dead," said Justin, "I mean, he's killed more people then cancer!"

"Or chocolate," muttered Kyle.

Nyssa turned her head surreptitiously and saw all three huddled by the door frame, gawking unabashedly.

"It's in their breed," concluded Remi definitively, "tigers' man. They're all fucking killers."

"Says Mr cute and Cuddly over here," Kyle snorted and there was a sound that Nyssa was sure came from Remi slapping the back of Kyle's head.

"Might be a good thing if he did just die though …" Justin muttered and Nyssa couldn't take it anymore, she turned around and walked towards them so swiftly, all three backed up and nearly tripped over each others feet.

"You sick fucks!" she hissed at them, "he's not a circus attraction! I do not need a running commentary in my ear of how bad he looks from the three stooges, okay? So just mind your business and leave us alone!"

"Where do you get off ordering us about, Arcadian?" Justin snarled at her and Nyssa who would have normally backed down just sneered at him.

"Where are the rules in Sanctuary that says people aren't allowed to be harassed?" Nyssa looked pointedly at Remi, who shrugged.

"Stand down, female," he said disdainfully, "we were just looking at the legendary Arcadian slayer."

Nyssa recognised the malicious jibe for what it was even if it was said rather tonelessly and Nyssa struggled for a come back.

"He's not some merciless killer! He killed because he had to, because he was forced to survive."

"We don't doubt that," Remi growled, "you Arcadians wrote the book on how to fuck up everyone's life."

"Oh, don't be so fucking righteous!" Nyssa shot back, wanting to rip and tear at the bear's gorgeous face. "Your race mutilated my family for nothing when I was ten years old. They raped my mother and forced my father to watch. They killed my seven year old brother in front of my parents before killing my mother then finally my father. So he had to see how he failed to protect his family. If you strike them young, you don't hunt them when they are old."

She saw recognition flare in Remi and Justin's eyes.

"That's the Slayer code, isn't it? That's what they shouted over the body of my defenceless baby brother. So don't tell me about fucked up lives when I have my fucking share of it, Katagaria!"

Nyssa was about to walk back to Lysander's side when she realised she still had too much mad left in her; she spun on her heel and marched back to them. She poked Justin in the chest, and stood bravely in front of him without flinching when he roared at her.

"And another thing. Lysander may be wanted by everyone but he isn't hunting anymore, so -"

"You moron!" Justin cut over her, "You think he is going to give up his revenge? For you? You're not so special, little Arcadian, not so special at all. And he will leave you to find that last sentinel and he'll probably hunt him 'til he dies."

The panther marched away and Kyle biting his lip worriedly backed away slowly behind his brother to avoid Nyssa's vicious glare. Remi was the only one that looked her dead in the eye.

"He won't give it up."

"What would you know?" Nyssa bit out.

"That revenge is the only thing to live for. It moves you more then love or hate, it gives you purpose." He advanced on her like he was about to tear her throat out as he growled the words, Kyle caught hold of his brother's arm and Remi halted, but yanked his arm away from his sibling, turned and stalked off down the hallway. Nyssa was left alone with Lysander once more, and she felt so lonely.

********************

Lysander woke to a strange sensation most humans get after they've smoked a joint, his mouth was dry, he was famished and he was confused. But more then that he reached out for Nyssa, expecting her to be there. She wasn't. Taking a moment to collect himself, he inhaled deeply and took the faint scent of Nyssa into his lungs, she had been here but she wasn't here now.

Lysander leant up and surveyed his surroundings; he could see Carson through the open doorway, frowning down at some file he was reading. There was no one in the room but him, Lysander felt rather disappointed and hurt that Nyssa wasn't there, he could do with some TLC from his beautiful mate.

_To hell with the TLC_, he thought, he just wanted to hold her again, to see her would be enough even.

Preparing to jump from the table he was laying, Lysander was distracted by something on his paw, when he looked it was a neatly folded piece of paper. It held Nyssa's scent. Flashing himself immediately into human form, Lysander knew he was healed for he felt no pain at all; he grabbed the letter and read.

_Dear Lysander,_

_I know your going to be reading this because you're too stubborn to die. I stayed with you until Carson said you were just sleeping off the anaesthetic. _

_I really don't know what more there is left to say between us, I don't think it could be expressed in words anyway. I feel for you deeply - no, that's not the truth. I love you deeply - that's the truth. I didn't want a long, drawn out, dramatic scene in front of those assholes at the Sanctuary, so I thought it best to leave without any real goodbye. I'm sorry if that's seems cold - it's a self-preservation thing. I hope you can understand that._

_You'll be pleased to know that I'm mastering my powers better, I was practicing while watching over you, I think your presence must have helped. Now I'm rambling. I'm crap at writing letters, so I'll end this one now. My life has never been happier then the time I spent with you, and there will never be anyone else for me. _

_I hope you find what you're looking for Lysander. I won't say I agree your need for revenge because I don't, but I guess I understand it more, now I've thought about it. I want you to be happy, in any way you can possibly achieve it. Just know that no matter what, you are loved._

_Yours (only yours)_

_Nyssa Castellanos_

Lysander didn't realise tears had formed in his eyes until one fell on the page, smearing the ink; his heart was tearing itself completely in two at the thought that he had lost her. Lysander rubbed his forearm over his face, taking the moisture away, he flashed clothes on his body and folded the letter up hastily and shoved it in his pocket.

He needed her back, desperately. She had punched a whole through his heart and left him aching, without her he was barren, a hollowed shell. She was forever fixed to his soul and when he got her back in his arms he would make her believe so, with the ultimate promise and show of commitment. Lysander walked into Carson's office and the hawk looked up, still frowning.

"Something on your mind, tiger?" Carson bit out, "'Cause I'm getting scared with you looking at me like that!"

"Yeah, you sound scared," Lysander said indifferently, he looked up as one of Nicolette Peltier's quads walked past, Lysander couldn't quite hold down a sneer. The bear stiffened and growled, Lysander gave him a droll stare and turned back to Carson.

"Where'd my mate go?"

Carson shrugged. "Do I look like I work for missing persons?" he snapped, and then looked over at the bear. "Guy thinks I'm the fucking yellow pages!"

The bear at the door laughed and Lysander braced himself his hands against the desk and leaned down so his face was inches from Carson's.

"You want to mind yourself with me, boy!" he sneered, his lips peeling back over his teeth, Carson paled slightly. "Because I won't have a second thought about plucking your feathery ass, and roasting it over a fireplace for Christmas! Do we understand each other?"

Carson nodded and Lysander pushed himself away from the desk with a growl that made Carson wince.

He deliberately left Sanctuary in the human manner, making sure everyone could see him and know he was still the bad ass of legend. He moved outside into the sickly hot air when a hand caught his forearm, Lysander turned ready for attack. Kyle Peltier gave a girlish shriek before cowering; Lysander pulled back and watched as the Peltier family, females and mates included rushed to the doorway of the bar. Mama Lo was white with livid fury, she looked as if she were about to charge at him when Kyle waved them back.

"Your mate," Kyle said shakily.

"Yeah?"

"She, err, well, she said she was staying at L'hôtel de château. That she had to pick up stuff from there."

"Thank you, bear. Sorry, but I thought you were going to attack."

Kyle, who had been practically faint with fear when Lysander turned on him, gave Lysander an amused smile.

"No problem, I mean look at me. I can believe that."

Lysander laughed and flashed himself to the entrance of the hotel; Nyssa's scent was strong here.

He followed it to the exact room she had been in and opened the door, he walked in and froze, the sweet, pleasant aroma of chocolate filled the air and Lysander's heart stopped.

_She wouldn't! _His mind screamed in denial.

He rushed from room to room looking for Nyssa, dreading finding her prone body laying on the floor, he had just finished checking under the bed when he noted that his the mating mark was still on his hand, he almost broke down. Only death could remove it. She was still alive!

"Can I help you, sir?"

Lysander looked up and saw the maid staring at him as if he were insane, holding a broom handle in front of her like a weapon. Lysander scrambled to his feet and the woman backed up a little, Lysander decided not to crowd her but he spoke urgently.

"The woman who was in this room, where is she now?"

"She didn't say."

"Did you see her leave, which way did she go?"

"She said she was going abroad, I don't know if that helps you?"

Lysander cursed and the woman cringed, he marched past her and strode out into the street, he wasn't sure what he was more angry or scared. There was enough chocolate in Nyssa's room to take out the entire Peltier clan, none of it looked like it had been touched but who's to say she didn't take any with her? Her scent was everywhere, as if she was going in all directions. Suddenly the thought struck him, what if she didn't want him to find her?

Lysander felt a surge of anger; she scares him half to death then goes and hides! He was furious.

Lysander growled. He was going to turn her over his knee for this, on the heels of that thought he grinned naughtily and flashed out of New Orleans.

******************************

Nyssa walked through the doors of Iri'ni and stood surveying the miserable sight before her, she would give Rumba one thing in his favour; he knew how to run a bar. Liko, on the other hand, had destroyed what Rumba had built over the centuries, it was almost sad.

Liko was by the pool table, he was playing against Romy, a fat little black woman with dreadlocks and a constant malicious smile. Nyssa came forward and sat at the bar ordering an orange juice, she kept her eyes on Liko in the mirror behind the bar and watched as his head abruptly snapped up as he was about to take his turn.

"I thought I told you never to bring your sorry hide in here again!" He cried over the mellow tunes of the juke box. He threw his cue on the table and marched around so he came up beside Nyssa; Romy appeared on her other side. Nyssa sighed inwardly, here we go again.

She span round on her stool, noticing that all of the customers had taken their drinks and hidden themselves under the table.

Nyssa looked up into Liko's face, in human form he looked like a handsome Porto Rican gentleman, with a neatly trimmed beard and wide brown eyes that always looked a little crazed. Liko and Rumba had actually been twins and the only real difference between them was the scar that ran down the left side of Liko's face and his insatiable appetite for hurting people.

"Wha' gowan, Liko, man?" Nyssa finding herself back on the island realised her accent was thickening and she was talking Little Dina's local patois. Romy, a native of the island, who Nyssa had always fancied as half demon because she was so ugly, made a derogatory noise by pursing her lips and sucking them back against her teeth.

"I be wantin' no trouble here, ya know."

"You hear dat, Liko. She be wantin' no trouble!" Romy screeched and Nyssa winced.

"What are you doing back here, Castellanos? Didn't I make it clear you aren't welcome?"

Nyssa couldn't help what next came out of her mouth, but days of living with a tiger bigger and badder then anything these two could put together just made her braver, or plain stupid.

"Wha' makes you tink I'm afraid of you? You can' do nuttin'!"

"Rah boi, ya hearin' dis gurl! She be in need of some serious beatin's, ya know!"

"I want you outta here, tiger, ya get me?" Liko leaned in close and breathed foul air over Nyssa, who looked him defiantly in the eye.

"No."

Liko laughed and he and Romy made a grab for Nyssa's arms, Nyssa struggled for all of two seconds before they were both thrown against the wall. Nyssa looked down at her hands and up and Liko, suddenly light was blocked out of the doorway and Nyssa turned her heart leaping wildly with joy. The figure in the doorway moved forward and Nyssa almost wilted in disappointment.

"You."

Ash took off his sunglasses and smiled kindly. "Me."

Liko stirred from the corner and stumbled to the bar; he looked at Ash and groaned, Ash whistled low between his teeth.

"You know me, Liko Costa?"

"Yes sir."

"You know who I am, for sure?"

"I do, sir."

"This tiger is under my protection," Liko blanched and Romy was trying to sneak around towards the door, Ash looked over his shoulder at her and Romy cowered in the corner. Ash laughed mirthlessly and smoothly polishing his glasses slipped them on his nose again. "I would seriously suggest you don't fuck with her anymore." Ash tipped his glasses down his nose before leaning towards Liko and adding in a perfect imitation of Liko's voice. "Ya get me?"

Liko nodded and backed away, Ash turned to Nyssa and gave a sigh, he was looking at her like a kindly old grandfather would look at his favoured grandchild.

"Do me one favour, Nyssa?"

"Name it." Ash grinned.

"Stay here," he said and turned to leave the bar, he paused next to a cowering Romy and clucked his tongue. "This where you been hiding, huh? Jaden is pissed at you, demon."

Romy made a high pitched squeak and slumped in the corner in a dead faint, Ash departed and Nyssa turned to the bar, rapping her knuckles on the bar.

"Drink, barman!"


	12. Chapter 12

Lysander flashed himself to the forest surrounding the camp where the Arcadians had kept him, he sniffed the air frantically trying to find Nyssa's scent, it was faint, almost dissipated under the scents of so many others that had been around longer. She wasn't here. Lysander put his head in his hands and ruthlessly pulled at his hair. Where was she!

A suddenly awareness that he was not alone had Lysander growing still. There was someone behind him. He bared his teeth, waiting for the right moment to turn, to strike to kill. His nostrils flared discreetly detecting the scent: Brutus!

Lysander whipped around and saw the tiger sitting dejectedly upon a rotting log, he looked aged and desolate. Lysander approached, when he was a few feet away Brutus spoke, his face still turned towards the ground, his voice so lacking in life it was like listening to dust in the wind. It was a lonely sound and it terrified Lysander, heightening the need to find Nyssa until Lysander thought he could not breathe.

"You've come back slayer, to seek your revenge no doubt."

"Not yet. I've …" the shame of it was churning his insides, "I've lost my mate."

Brutus huffed out a laugh that sounded more like a sob. "She's not here, slayer. No ones here."

For the first time Lysander realised that the camp was deserted, he eyed Brutus carefully, the tiger had claw marks across his chest, they disappeared over his shoulder to trail down his back no doubt. Lysander could sympathise, he'd felt enough claws to know.

"What happened here?" Lysander asked.

"We fought, I won. They left," Brutus answered, his bloodshot eyes surveying the destruction. Lysander moved forward, by no means letting his guard down, but he moved silently until he stood nearer to the distraught tiger.

"Tigers aren't meant to live together anyway," Lysander muttered, still unable to keep his eyes from travelling over the wreckage that was the camp.

"We were family!" Brutus snarled, making his hands into claws as he looked down at his palms. "I have given my life into the services of preserving this family. I have lived, breathed, bled and almost died for them. And now I am alone."

"I am sorry for you, Brutus," Lysander said, shocking himself in how sincere he actually was. "It's never a nice thing for your life to be knocked off kilter."

Lysander crouched down beside the anguished tiger and drew his hand through the charred earth under their feet.

"But sometimes you need things to change in order for them to become better."

"You think you know so much," Brutus tried to snarl but it merely came out a weary observation than a hostile accusation.

"With experience comes wisdom."

"I thought that was age?" Brutus countered.

"No. Its experience," Lysander didn't elaborate; instead he stood intending to flash himself another step towards finding Nyssa. Brutus looked up, his red eyes squinty as if he were looking at the sun.

"And, for the sake of my … sanity, is it that I fought my family for? If you don't mind my asking, sir?"

Lysander gave a wry grin.

"Lysander Stephanos."

Brutus looked like he was just about to be sick.

"Lysander Stephanos," he repeated jerkily.

Lysander waited for an attack, feared he would be forced to kill the tiger, who had, no doubt, been privy to the rumours and accusations laid against Lysander's name.

"You are not how they paint you, Lysander Stephanos," Brutus muttered, before kicking at the dirt with his boot, Lysander did not know what to say so he merely inclined his head and turned his back on the Arcadian, sure for some reason that he would not be attacked by Brutus. At least from behind.

"You still track the Arcadian sentinels that killed your family, Katagaria?"

Lysander stopped suddenly and spun on his heel; Brutus raised his head and looked him squarely in the eye with a smirk that held no amusement.

"That's common knowledge, Arcadian."

"Don't waste anymore years, Lysander," Brutus sighed, "Raca Bar-Dimi is dead. Died many years ago, he is long from this world."

Brutus turned his gaze back to study the earth, not knowing that Lysander's world was suddenly closing in on him. The air and colours and noises all became too much, too vibrant and loud. It was a shattering of all that he had ever known, all that he had ever been sure of. Until Nyssa had came like a whirlwind into his life, he had only ever envisioned his future two ways, one dying in the pursuit of the last Arcadian Sentinel - the one, incidentally, that he could not find because of him inconveniently being already dead - or two, that he would kill the last Arcadian Sentinel. In the latter case, Lysander realised he had been so driven to reach the point where he killed that one last Sentinel, that he had never truly thought past that culminating event. What would he have done after reaching it?

Allegorically he was at that point now. Lysander saw himself in his minds eye, standing over the body of that last sentinel, and gaining the knowledge that the man who had murdered his family all those many years ago had now been pushed out of all existence.

Yet he was not the same person who had plotted out his future methodically anymore, he was no longer the man whose very heart beat for revenge. Who woke in the morning with that sole purpose in mind, who only had the taste of retribution on his tongue. He was now a man that looked past this moment to something profoundly more important, something that he had long neglected.

Nyssa.

Lysander breathed her name like a prayer. He loved her more than life itself, more than honour, duty, more than revenge. He needed her more than he had ever needed those things, he just hoped that when he told her, and he damn well planned to tell her! That she believed him as sincerely as his heart felt it.

It occurred to Lysander, what a waste of years his life had been up until he had met her, he could no longer exist, he needed to live and she was what he needed to achieve that.

"How - how do you know this?" Lysander stuttered out.

"I witnessed it."

"To whom did he fall?"

"Me."

Brutus looked up to see Lysander staring at him with a deep expression, too deep for a tiger people pronounced an unfeeling, merciless killer.

"You killed him?"

"Aye that I did."

Lysander nodded before asking why.

"He did not play by the rules," Brutus replied enigmatically.

"What rules?"

"The rules that say innocents must go free, that women and children are innocent. The rules that say you do not become like your prey in order to remain a predator. There must be rules in this game we play, life must have rules."

Brutus said it with such conviction that Lysander was rather shocked and humbled. It was the first time in his life he had met an Arcadian, beside his beautiful mate, who had shown true depth of compassion and kindness of nature, a sense of fair play and honour that had died from the world that Lysander had come to know.

"You are a good man, Brutus," Lysander said, "in killing my enemy you unknowingly avenge me. When you didn't know me you have me the benefit of the doubt and defended me, even in your grief. And when you found out my name you acted on what you knew and had seen rather than what you had heard and thought. You are a credit and contribution to your race."

Brutus stared up at Lysander and gave him a wry grin, his face flushing humbly, he shrugged.

"I doubt many would agree with you right at this moment, Katagaria," he laughed slightly, the first real laugh, Brutus realised, in a long time.

"They are fools," Lysander responded indifferently, his eyes fixed intensely on Brutus, he moved forward and extended his hand. "It would be an honour if we parted as friends."

Brutus stood up and with a gracious incline of the head, he took the proffered hand, washing away the last remnants of a centuries old prejudice that Nyssa had first torn apart.

"I hope we meet again, tiger," Brutus said, in a kindly way.

"As do I."

************************

Lysander finally found Nyssa in the place he had a strange inkling she would be, yet it still shocked him to find her there. She sat up the bar, her petite little form made to look even younger in the flowy, white little summer dress she wore, her arms rested on the bar, her hands cradling her glass. Her head was bent and her eyes were sorrowful, Lysander suppressed a laugh, she looked like a depressed alcoholic just out of rehab. But she also looked deliciously cute; Lysander bit his lip as he moved further into the bar that looked as if it had had a pack of stampeding buffalo run through it.

"Ya know," snarled Liko Costa to Nyssa, as he polished a glass, "I don't know why ya come back 'ere. Ya not wanted."

Nyssa gave him a cocky glare.

"And I thought it was because you miss me so," Nyssa said sweetly, Lysander raised a brow at her accent. She had always had one when talking to him, it had been a sexy, melodic Caribbean lilt, but always very understandable. Now however, Nyssa's accent had thickened until it was hard to distinguish what she was saying.

"Ya know, me always thought Rumba was stupid for not killin' you."

Nyssa rolled her eyes. "Ya point is?"

"That it was a great pity he waited so long," Liko growled, his hostile glare never leaving her, "Ya think I scared of ya big, bad friends?"

Before Nyssa could retort there was a ferocious growl from behind her, Nyssa swung around and watch as Lysander sauntered lazily to the bar.

"No," Lysander answered for her, "but you might be scared of her mate!"

Nyssa laughed in spite of the warring emotions that seeing him produced.

"Liko Costa," Nyssa said delightedly, "meet my mate, Lysander Stephanos."

Liko looked as if he had stopped breathing, he went absolutely still the moment before he shook so violently that the glass he held fell to the floor and broke into thousands of pieces. For extra effect, Lysander roared so loudly and viciously that Liko's legs collapsed from under him and he stared up at Lysander and Nyssa, petrified.

"What were you doing near my mate?" Lysander demanded, he allowed a malicious growl to enter his voice and linger on the end of his words. Liko made placating gestures and apologetic noises but no words actually passed his lips, giving up Liko half run, half crawled out the back of the bar. Lysander gave a naughty laugh before turning back to Nyssa, who was watching him with a raised eyebrow. Lysander sighed happily, suddenly overcome with so much happiness he could not keep from smiling; even his eyes had merriment in them. He tapped a finger affectionately on her chin.

"You've got some explaining to do," he murmured, unable to take his eyes off her, his miracle; his wonder.

"Why are you here?" Nyssa asked quietly and the corners of Lysander's eyes crinkled where he smiled so widely, the affect was breath-taking, if he wasn't before, Lysander had just become heart stopping in his handsomeness.

"You know why," Lysander countered, tapping her chin once more before slipping his hand up into her hair and leaning in, rubbing along her, making noises like a cat that had just seen his owner after a long day alone. Nyssa didn't say anything, but to Lysander's mind she had been saying too much all along, it was now time for him to open his mouth and his heart, in was what she deserved.

"You scared me, little girl."

Nyssa looked puzzled and Lysander couldn't resist, he swooped down and captured her plump lips in a warmest, sweetest kiss imaginable.

"I wake to find you gone from my side," Lysander clarified, "then a hotel room full of poison," Nyssa blushed.

"I guess it was a little melodramatic," she said, unable to look him in the eye, Lysander's smile faded.

"There is nothing dramatic about it! Do you know what it does to my very soul to know I made you feel that way? I hate myself for it."

Nyssa let out a dry sob and shook her head. "Please don't! I didn't mean for you to find out, I was just so -" Nyssa broke off when Lysander caught her against his chest.

"Your not alone anymore, Nyssa. I have you now, I will never leave you."

Nyssa found she could only cry harder.

"Nyssa, the sentinel is dead. My revenge is dead. But you were right; I thought it had consumed me until I met you. Until you all I wanted was my revenge, but you …"

Lysander nuzzled her face.

"You change everything. You mean more to me than anything else ever has or ever will," Lysander spoke with a conviction and passion straight from the heart, he got down on his knees in front of her, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Lysander rested his head on her stomach before he began speaking again.

"You are my one and only. Never will you be second best to anything. I love you, Nyssa; I love you so very much."

Nyssa put her face in her hands and cried while she lowered herself to her knees also, Lysander wrapped his arms around her.

"I have found what I'm looking for, please don't say it's too late," Lysander muttered. She cried as though her heart were breaking and those tears burned right through to his heart. "Do you still love me, Nyssa? Can I still call you mine?"

Nyssa nodded into his shirt and snuggled closer, her sobs quieting now, Lysander couldn't help smiling. Who ever would have thought a horrible bastard like him could ever hold something so precious? That something as pure as she would willingly give herself to him? He sat down and settled her into his lap so she could cry out the rest of the storm.

Nyssa lay her head upon Lysander's shoulder, feeling absolutely drained. The bar was empty so there was no one to watch or interrupt their little scene; Lysander leant back against the bar and cradled Nyssa, entirely content just to hold her.

"The sentinel is really dead?" she asked even though she didn't want to, just in case it wasn't real.

"Yes. And not by my hand either," Lysander answered her, his voice low and muffled against her hair. He continued to tell her of what transpired with Brutus and Nyssa couldn't help feeling extremely grateful to the Arcadian tiger. With that thought came another dampener for her spirits, Lysander sensed this immediately and pulled her back so he could look into her adorable, tear-streaked face.

"What's wrong, little one?" Lysander's voice, so comforting and incredibly tender was causing her heart to do painful things.

"I'm still Arcadian, Lysander," Nyssa couldn't quite keep her voice steady; she had been through such an emotional rollercoaster that anything was a candidate for setting of the waterworks. Lysander wanted to beat himself for his thoughtless past actions, the way her head hung and she refused to meet his gaze as if ashamed.

"You are my beautiful, brave, talented Arcadian mate," Lysander said, kissing one eye, then the other, "whose name is Nyssa Stephanos."

Nyssa gave him the first real smile she had felt in days, she reached her hand up to run through his black hair, loving the way it twined around her fingers. There was so much love in her for him; she didn't know how she could still breathe.

"Thank you," Nyssa whispered, finding words so inadequate for conveying her gratitude at having given her the acceptance she had craved for years. "Thank you for accepting me."

Lysander felt a painful squeeze around his heart and in that moment he wanted to weep. He didn't, however when he spoke his voice quavered terribly.

"The one saving grace in my world is that you are in it with me, Nyssa."

"Don't you'll make me cry again," Nyssa warned, tears already falling, Lysander laughed and squeezed her to him.

"You'd deserve it after what you put me through."

Lysander felt all the blood rush to his groin when Nyssa's mutinous face came off his chest, ready for an argument.

"What I put you through!" She said indignantly, "You've got some nerve! You -"

She stopped abruptly when she realised he was silently laughing at her, she felt a mile wide grin break out over her face. She gave him a punch in the shoulder that made him laugh harder.

Lysander caught her head in his hands and simply looked at her.

"I've missed you, Fos tis psihis mou," Lysander muttered.

"What did you say?" Nyssa asked, the tone of his voice immediately making her weepy again.

"Light of my soul."

Nyssa felt her lip tremble again.

"Am I?"

"Don't doubt me, Nyssa," Lysander murmured, leaning forward so his lips skimmed hers. "Not on my love for you. That is the one thing you can be sure of until the day we die and even after that."

Nyssa's breath caught.

"We?"

Lysander smiled gently and brushed her ebony hair back from her precious face.

"Bond with me, Nyssa."

Nyssa threw her arms around Lysander's neck and kissed him senseless.

"That's a yes, right?" he said against her mouth, Nyssa giggled.

"That's a yes."


	13. Chapter 13

Lysander watched Nyssa as she stripped her clothes languidly from her skin; he was aroused beyond belief by watching the cotton wisp over her skin and floating to the floor. Nyssa grinned wickedly and turned to give him her back while she pulled her shorts and panties down her legs, giving her mate a few that caused him to growl. Lysander sat in a hot spring; His arms braced wither side of him, his hands gripping the rock so hard he was surprised it didn't start to crumble. Nyssa deliberately stretched, her hip sticking out, she reached up and pulled the tie from her hair so it fell in a wave of ebony silk, concealing her back.

"You're killing me," Lysander choked out, his groin on fire, Nyssa's mischievous laugh floated back to him and she turned. Her body was bare to his gaze, her long black hair concealed her breasts tantalisingly so, but what he eyed with most anticipation was the triangle of black curls in the junction of her thighs. Lysander licked his lips and raised his eyes to her face, Nyssa was pleased by the affect she had on him and stretched and moved her body more then necessary to give a view of everything that was his. She raised her arms above her head and dived in the water, Lysander watched the water ripple and her sleek body swimming towards him. She reached him but didn't surface; instead she raked his thighs lightly with her nails and licked teasingly at the head of his cock. Lysander gripped the rock tighter and heard a crack; he threw his head back and began to pant when she slipped him into her tight hot mouth. The suction was incredible, combined with the feel of the water bubbling around them and the sight of her water distorted body pleasuring him, Lysander quickly found his peak. Nyssa did not stop until she had milked him dry and she surfaced smiling coyly.

"That was -" Lysander whistled low and Nyssa laughed. Lysander's breath stopped in his chest, a glazed look graced his face as he stared at her. She had always been beautiful but the way she looked just then was breath taking, her dark hair looked darker, slicked back from her face, droplets of water trickled down her neck and over her breasts, from her eyelashes and nose. Lysander actually felt his throat tighten, he let go of the rock so he could cup her small head in his hand.

Nyssa blushed.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Just thinking," Lysander said quietly and pulled her forward so he could place a chaste but reverent kiss on her forehead. Nyssa closed her eyes; she felt his body travel down her back, around the front to briefly attend to her aching breasts before circling lower. He used his palm to massage her mound, all the while he studied her face with care, she whispered no encouragement but he knew by the expressions on her face how she liked to be touched. Her eyes were squeezed tight and when Lysander moved his fingers lower to slip one inside he watched her bit her lip, he used it on her with aching slowness and patience, exercising all his will power not to simply take her right then. He slipped another finger inside her and Nyssa let out a gasp, Lysander felt his control splinter. He pumped her harder becoming more aroused by the noises she made, Nyssa tried to squeeze her legs around his hand, trying to prolong and end the tormenting pleasure that was spiralling her body out of control, but Lysander would not allow her to. He spun her round so she was pushed back against the rock, still driving her with ruthless thrusts of his fingers with one hand; with the other he held one thigh open with the other. Watching her face as it changed was one of Lysander's treasured moments, he liked giving her pleasure more then receiving it and that was the truth. With Nyssa he was truly unselfish, in every aspect of his being, and that was the biggest shock of all. Tigers were generally solitary, individualistic creatures, catering to their own needs and desires; they shared nothing and took everything. But Nyssa could have Lysander's food, riches, status, love, friendship, she could have it all and he would ask for nothing more then her smiles at the end of the day.

Lysander felt a rush of hot liquid, different to that that surrounded their bodies, coat his fingers while Nyssa gave a short sharp scream of satisfaction.

"Oh, by the Goddess," Nyssa moaned, her head falling back languidly against the side of the spring, she could almost faint with so much pleasure. The sensation and feeling was too much, the feel of the water on her sensitive skin, of Lysander pressed so close to her, his breath falling heavily and hot on her shoulder. He shifted and it brought the tip of his enlarged manhood against her swollen core, she was still shivering from the aftershocks of her orgasm and didn't have the strength to talk let alone move.

"Don't worry, love," Lysander whispered throatily in her ear, she felt her core thrum, "lie back and I'll make you feel it all over again."

Nyssa made a noise half way between a protest and encouragement, Lysander laughed darkly before turning her so her front was pressed against the rocks. She felt their roughness scrape her skin and was perversely thrilled by it; Lysander came up behind her, fitting his front against her back. The water shimmered around them but Nyssa couldn't see anything, she had her eyes closed again, allowing Lysander to nibble and kiss her neck, his hot, damp open mouthed kisses making her go boneless. Lysander brought his arm around in front of her and opened his hand, his pal showed the mating mark and Nyssa felt her lip tremble, blinking back tears of joy, and she placed her own in his. Without warning Lysander thrust into Nyssa's primed and welcoming body, Lysander let out a growl when her body enclosed round him like a hot fist. He seemed to grow inside her, hardening even more, he bit his lip to keep him from coming, tauntingly he pulled his body back making Nyssa cry out. The aching hollow that he left behind wanted to make her move against him but he had her expertly pinned to the rocks, Lysander drove back into her with such ruthless force that Nyssa was scooted up and out of the water slightly with a moan of pleasure.

Lysander murmured the ritual words in her ear, and began to thrusting in earnest, his control shattering. Nyssa could barely get the words out, with his body inside of hers and his mouth biting firmly on her ear. Suddenly a pain rocketed through Lysander's body.

"Do it, Lysander," Nyssa cried and Lysander sank his teeth into her shoulder whilst Nyssa struck at the main veins in his wrist. They were locked as one person in that moment, their hearts beats, their breath and soul became one, Nyssa saw the inside of Lysander's mind and she felt him rushing through hers, gliding through her bloodstream adding a fire to the already furious burn of passion. When it was over Lysander pulled out of Nyssa and turned her in his arms, he traced his fingertips over her face and trailed his lips behind them.

"I love you Nyssa, neither of us will be alone again," he whispered, his chest heaving, Nyssa smiled at him dreamily.

"I knew that from the moment I met you, I'd never let you go."

Lysander kissed her again and for the first time in his life looked into the future with wonder and unabashed joy.


End file.
